Brattleboro Retreat expands mental health program for health care, service workers
WCAX
The pandemic shed light on the issues health care and service workers faced dealing with their own mental health. Now, the Brattleboro Retreat is expanding a program to help more of those and other professionals.
“My diagnosis kind of has been things like PTSD, depression, anxiety. And more recently it was burnout, which is why that program for first responders, it really resonated with me,” said Marina Cesar, a large animal veterinarian who travels across New England to provide care. She says she struggles with her mental health and that as a health care provider, people can sometimes forget to check in on her when she’s feeling low. “The more you do, the more you are asked to do. You can easily get put into this, ‘Oh Marina will do it,’ you know, ‘She can’t say no.’ I do think that they think we are superhuman.”
Cesar learned about the Healthcare Professionals and First Responders program at the Brattleboro Retreat. It’s offered to people in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts and includes therapy sessions via Zoom as well as in-patient care for either four or six-week sessions.