Self-Care & Supporting Teams in Overwhelming Times: Webinars
As our communities respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a difficult time for everyone—especially for those providing essential supports and services. We appreciate beyond measure the work of frontline staff who are caring for the physical and mental health of so many vulnerable people.
In April 2020, we offered free webinars on self-care and supporting teams during overwhelming times. You can listen or re-listen to the recordings in the links below.
Self-Care in Overwhelming Times
These are hard and overwhelming times. Stress, anxiety, fear, loss, and grief – all part of ordinary life – are exponentially heightened during this pandemic. How do we name what we’re experiencing? What practices can help us stay healthy in body, mind, and spirit? How do we keep gentleness and compassion alive for self and others?
How to Support Your Teams in Overwhelming Times
Ken Kraybill and Kristen Paquette will share tips for leading and supporting teams and individuals during overwhelming times. They will also facilitate a conversation for agency leaders, program directors, and supervisors to share ideas about supporting staff during this pandemic. Join us in identifying the challenges staff are facing and exploring concrete and creative ways to respond.
Meet the Facilitators
Ken Kraybill, MSW, Senior Trainer, has worked in healthcare, behavioral health, homelessness, and housing for more than 35 years. He has 18 years of experience working as a behavioral health practitioner in homeless services. For the past two decades, he has been developing curricula and facilitating in-person and online training nationally on topics including motivational interviewing, trauma-informed care, outreach and engagement, case management, critical time intervention, and supervision.
Kristen Paquette, MPH, CEO, is an accomplished leader with over a decade of experience directing C4 Innovations programs, operations, and business development. Her primary areas of expertise include substance use prevention and recovery supports for youth and adults. She directs the development of a substance use prevention intervention for youth and leads C4 Innovations’ work to advance quality recovery housing.
Questions
Contact us with any questions.
More Self-Care Resources
- Changing the Conversation Podcast: Mindfulness in the Time of Crisis
- Centers for Disease Control (CDC): Manage Anxiety and Stress
- New York Times: 10 Ways to Ease Your Coronavirus Anxiety
- Mental Health First Aid:
- Emma McAdam: 10 skills to soothe your brain when the news is scary
- International Association of Peer Supporters (iNAPS): Peer Support Approaches for Responding to Fear
- Harvard Business Review: The Restorative Power of Ritual
Racially Equitable Responses to COVID-19
Top of our minds are the ways in which communities of color are and will be disproportionately impacted during and after this pandemic. When developing strategies to support people during the COVID-19 outbreak, consider the following to ensure more equitable responses in your programs and services:
- Are you including and considering potential impact on people who are Black or African American; American Indian and Alaska Native; Asian; Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander; and Hispanic/Latinx?
- Do the people who are entering, staying in, and being discharged from your programs represent the racial make-up of your overall population?
- Are you outlining objective criteria and measures to decide who you can serve and to limit the extent to which bias influences these decisions when faced with limited resources?
- How are you supporting people to ensure ongoing access to treatment and medications for chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension, substance use disorder, and mental illness?
- Do your frontline workers who cannot work from home have the supports they need (e.g. additional compensation for childcare for children unable to attend school/daycare, masks, gloves, ways to share their fears and challenges)?
Let’s not perpetuate race inequities in the name of crisis. More ways to ensure equitable responses in your programs and services.