St. Clair County, MI — As businesses in the Blue Water Area prepare to transition back to regular operations, the St. Clair County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has partnered with St. Clair County Community Mental Health to deploy a team to assist healthcare providers, first responders, organizations, and businesses to support their front-line workers.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Response Team is made up of professionals from a variety of disciplines that have been trained to provide support after a critical incident occurs in St. Clair County. The goal of this team is to provide support to essential workers and other employees returning to work as they cope with the stress, anxiety and other complex emotions related to the COVID-19 pandemic by:
- Allowing employees to come together to talk about how they have been affected by the pandemic.
- Offering support and education regarding normal stress reactions to a traumatic event.
- Providing education regarding the importance of self-care and support for co-workers.
- Expediting recovery and keep employees performing at their best.
- Minimizing absenteeism and maintaining a solid workforce.
Debra Johnson, Executive Director of St. Clair County Community Mental Health says, “Caring for the mental health of employees in St. Clair County is critical in maintaining a healthy workforce. Our goal is to support both businesses and workers by offering this level of hands-on care and support. We know that people have experienced a range of emotion in response to COVID-19; anxiety, anger, stress, apathy, burnout, fear, compassion fatigue, feeling overwhelmed, depression, isolation, and more. We are here to help people heal, process, and prepare to move forward.”
Group sessions run between 60 – 90 minutes long, depending on group size and discussion content. Teams can be available to lead sessions at various times to support and reach employees regardless of working hours. Sessions are confidential, intended to support employees to educate them about managing stress reactions. These interventions are not psychotherapy. Interventions are intended to provide support and education to participants.
For more information and to schedule sessions for employees, contact Amy Smith, St. Clair County Community Mental Health at asmith@scccmh.org, 810-650-8737 or Mark White, St. Clair County Emergency Operations Center at mwhite@stclaircounty.org, 810-989-6965.
