No-Cost Mental Health Support for Frontline Healthcare Providers and First Responders Now Available at Cohen Veterans Network

STAMFORD, Conn., July 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Building on its extensive background treating the impacts of PTSD and trauma with military veterans, and the experience of offering mental health resources to frontline healthcare providers and first responders in New York City, Cohen Veterans Network (CVN) is now offering free services in six additional locations of great need, as coronavirus cases surge again putting more stress on hospitals and first responders.

CVN Frontline, a no-cost mental health resource center featuring interactive online support groups and asynchronous resources, is available now to Frontline Healthcare Providers and First Responders and their adult family members in Philadelphia, Tampa, Austin, Dallas, Denver, and San Diego. CVN clinicians from Killeen, Texas and San Diego, are facilitating the online support groups.

"As the pandemic has taken another turn to once again place this country's healthcare workers and first responders and their families at risk – we are moving quickly to offer our expertise to this population in high-need markets across the country," said Dr. Anthony Hassan, President & CEO of CVN. "This is the next step for us as we do our part in utilizing our extensive experience to treat the impacts of mental health challenges."  

Since launch on May 20, the CVN Frontline website has had more than 4,500 visitors to date. The most viewed asynchronous video content includes mindfulness, meditation and suicide prevention.

CVN recently announced the results of a national survey of more than 500 frontline healthcare providers (HCPs) and first responders that showed that COVID-19 had taken a significant toll on their physical and mental health. Key findings of the Cohen Veterans Network America's Mental Health Frontline Survey included:

• 55% of all first responders and frontline healthcare providers say they are concerned about their overall mental health, led by Healthcare Providers (HCPs) at 60%.
• Nationally, HCPs describe themselves as:
• Anxious (47%)
• Concerned (66%)
• Worn out (46%)
• Scared (19%)
• Nationwide, HCPs are more likely to say their job is putting the lives of their family at risk because of the coronavirus (73%) compared to first responders (58%).

CVN is offering the following free mental health resources to frontline healthcare providers, first responders, and their family members:

• Mental Health Resource Center. CVN has launched a resource center – CVN Frontline – where first responders and frontline healthcare providers and their family members can access on-demand mental healthcare programming and asynchronous training from a range of sources through short videos, online tools, and assignments.
• Support Groups. CVN is offering ongoing non-clinical support groups facilitated by licensed clinicians across its network that directly focuses on issues that may most impact frontline healthcare providers. The first group focuses on General Coping Skills and Managing Distress and, over time, may include other areas of focus as needed. These groups are being conducted online.

About America's Mental Health Frontline
On behalf of the Cohen Veterans Network, The Harris Poll conducted 523 online interviews among frontline healthcare providers and first responders nationally and in New York City from May 19 – 28, 2020.  Combined with the national sample, an oversample yielded a total of 153 of New York City uniformed frontline workers. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.  

SOURCE Cohen Veterans Network