The National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) awarded primary investigators Drs. Derek P. Hales, PhD, and Deborah J. Jones, PhD, a 5-year grant to conduct a cluster-randomized control trial to evaluate the potential of a remotely delivered workplace resilience intervention to improve the mental health and well-being of child care providers.
Work-related stressors take a heavy toll on individuals’ health and well-being. The COVID-19 pandemic increased focus on essential workers, like child care providers, and amplified challenges in workplaces facing large structural inequalities. Resilience programs have arisen as a promising workplace strategy to improve mental health and well-being. However, emerging programs are often time- and resource-intensive, limiting scalability and practicality for delivery to many marginalized groups.
“We know that over the last few years most child care providers report being more stressed and burnt-out, which affects personal, organizational, and child health.” said Dr. Hales. “Many people on our team work closely with state and local early care and education staff through our Go NAPSACC program and must navigate these issues regularly. With this new project, we are very excited for the opportunity to combine service and science to improve well-being for this essential group of people.”
The research team will test a fully remote resilience intervention aimed at child care staff, an underserved segment of the workforce.
“Child care workers are providing an essential service that is critical to the health and well-being of young children during a formative developmental period,” said Dr. Jones. “Yet, child care workers who are front and center in the lives of children and families often perform their essential roles with relatively few resources and high demands increasing the likelihood of stress, burnout, and turnover in the child care settings upon which parents must rely. So, the potential for a fully remote program that honors the demands on childcare workers’ time and energy has immense promise for bolstering resilience in this important group.”
Results will provide guidance for a scientifically sound, replicable therapeutic program with potential for rapid translation, implementation, and sustainability with implications for other critical, yet marginalized segments of the workforce.
The research study will be implemented in collaboration with Drs. Erik Willis, PhD, MPH, FACSM, Director of the Community Health & Wellness Resource Team and Laura Linnan, ScD, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Sherry Chesak, PhD, MS, RN, at the University of Minnesota. The original proposal was developed with the guidance and direction of Dr. Dianne Ward, EdD, FTOS, FACSM, mentor, leader, friend, and founder of the Community Health & Wellness Resource Team.
Dr. Derek P. Hales, PhD, is a Research Scientist at the UNC Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention working with the Community Health & Wellness Resource Team.
Dr. Deborah J. Jones, PhD, is an Associate Chair and Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. Dr. Jones is a Research Fellow at the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.
This story is adapted from the original press release from CHWR.