As a response to COVID-19, we created a Center for Stress, Resilience, and Personal Growth to provide mental health services to our staff, faculty, students, and trainees. Services include individualized assessments, planning, and coaching; resiliency workshops; and treatment referrals. We also established an on-the-ground mental health liaison program to proactively help our frontline workers with psychological issues. This program was made up entirely of volunteer faculty, social workers, and residents who displayed enormous strength of character while sacrificing their time and energy.
To provide support to our New York City community we quickly adapted to telehealth. Our patient data show unprecedented volume during this time, as psychiatry lends itself effectively to telehealth. We were fortunate to have a nimble, caring team that went above and beyond to provide emotional support to established patients, in addition to the new ones needing help dealing with the emotional fallout from the pandemic.