A Qualitative Exploration of a Mindful Resiliency Program for Community Health Care Providers.

Klockner, Karen; Crawford, Christopher; Craigie, Mark; Tsai, Lily; Hegney, Desley

Despite the important contribution of non-government organisations (NGOs) to the community health care sector the building and maintenance of occupational resilience in community health workers has received little attention. However, it is recognised that employees in this sector are exposed to significant stressors from the high demand work environment which negatively impacts on their wellbeing. Therefore, this research examined the acceptability, feasibility, and sustainability of a mindful resiliency program by employing a qualitative analysis of participant subjective experience of the program in this cohort. This was the first study to be conducted with senior managers and front-line health care providers in the NGO community sector. A one-month post-delivery qualitative review of the program identified four major themes: applicability, changes to participant's skills, social support and coping with COVID-19. A major finding was the ability of the participants to immediately recognize their stress levels and to then manage them. Additionally, the learnings from the program were shown to be usefully applied with work colleagues and clients within the work environment, and with family members.