Denver Health – Resilience and Equity through Support and Training for Organizational Renewal

Improving the well-being and resilience of the hospital workforce has been and continues to be an issue of great importance and concern. Realizing that employee well-being influences the quality of care provided as well as employee recruitment and retention efforts, Denver Health sought solutions to improve employee mental well-being and reduce employee burnout.

The solution, for Denver Health, was to implement the Resilience and Equity through Support and Training for Organizational Renewal (RESTORE) program, which is available to all Denver Health employees, trainees, students, contractors and volunteers. The goals and objectives of the RESTORE program include the following:

• Promote and sustain the mental well-being of the workforce.
• Promote and sustain individual, collective, and organizational resilience through timely and confidential peer-delivered emotional support and psychological first aid.
• Provide trauma and resilience informed education and training.

RESTORE, implemented in January 2020 with rapid expansion in March 2020, has enjoyed many successes including the following:

• Since March 2020:
  • 371,876 touches and 13,593 encounters or activations for application of psychological first aid (PFA) and emotional support.
• Since August 16, 2021:
  • 743 calls to the 24/7 peer support line.
  • RESTORE group support team has served 3,364 group participants.
  • 208,041 visits to the drop-in center.
  • 4,079 instances of peer-delivered PFA during center visits.
  • 4,625 touches via mobile services to staff across units and clinics.
  • Peer responders have provided emotional support and PFA 314 times via mobile services.
  • 3,071 have participated in RESTORE trauma and resilience-informed training, education and workshop offerings.
• Since Jan. 1, 2022:
  • 321 outreach calls have been made to include staff directly impacted by assaults and workplace violence.

To learn more about the RESTORE program, please contact Maria Gonsalves Schimpf, MA, MT-BC ([email protected]) at Denver Health.