Outpatient Mental Health Care Utilization among Frontline Healthcare Workers

Healthcare workers are at high risk for burnout. Burnout can exacerbate anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric concerns, leading to impaired functioning and negative outcomes for healthcare workers, patients, and healthcare systems. Many workplace factors can contribute to burnout including high patient volumes, personal health risks, exposure to trauma, and scheduling and staffing issues. Mental health treatments such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) are effective for addressing burnout, but these psychotherapies can be difficult for healthcare workers to access due to stigma, cost, and scheduling challenges. To address these barriers, a large hospital system supported the creation of an outpatient mental health clinic to offer medication management and psychotherapy services without copays for employees and their dependents. After being in operation for three years, data are now available on patterns of psychiatric distress and mental health care utilization in this population. This paper provides an overview of these patterns in the patient population, as well as discussion of lessons learned, future challenges, and recommendations for continuing to help healthcare workers who are experiencing burnout and psychiatric distress.