Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community (RCHC)

Social service and health care providers who provide care to children, families, and communities after a natural disaster

Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community (RCHC) is a program designed to address the unique psychological needs of disaster-affected healthcare and social service providers. RCHC is a group work intervention designed to mitigate postdisaster mental health distress and amplify resilience among disaster affected healthcare and social service providers. The desired outcomes of the program are to reduce secondary traumatic stress, posttraumatic stress, and generalized distress among these providers. The program also aims to increase social support and adaptive coping as a mechanism to reduce distress symptoms.

Tara Powell

• Email: tlpowell@illinois.edu
• Phone: (217) 300-0917

Publicly available information indicates there is some training available for this program. See contact info.

Manual Information

There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.

Training Information

There is training available for this program.

“What is included in the Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research section?”

• Powell, T., Scott, J., Yuma, P., & Hsiao, Y. (2022). Surviving the storm: A pragmatic non‐randomised examination of a brief intervention for disaster‐affected health and social care providers. Health & Social Care in the Community, 30(6), e6217–e6227. https://doi.org/10.1111/hsc.14059

  Type of Study: Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)

  Participants: 762

  Sample / Population:

  • Age — 18–55+ years
  • Race/Ethnicity — Not specified
  • Gender — 80% Female and 20% Male
  • Status —

    Participants were healthcare or social care providers.

  Location/Institution: South Texas and Puerto Rico

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to examine the psychological distress of health and social care providers before and after participating in the brief group intervention, Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community (RCHC) and its expanded version, RCHC+. Participants were assigned to either RCHC or to RCHC+. Measures utilized include the Impact of Events Scale Revised (IES-R), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL). Results indicate that after participation, providers in both RCHC and RCHC+ reported a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms from baseline that was sustained over both time points; no significant difference was found in results on PTSD symptoms between the two groups. The likelihood of a reduction in symptoms of anxiety and STS from baseline was sustained at both time points only for participants in the RCHC+ condition. Limitations include the lack of randomization, the lack of a non-RCHC control group, and that while RCHC had some significant effects, it was not superior to the comparison group.

• Note: The following study was not included in rating Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community on the Scientific Rating Scale.

  Powell, T. & Yuma-Guerrero, P. (2016). Supporting community health workers after a disaster: Findings from a mixed-methods pilot evaluation study of a psychoeducational intervention. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness, 10(5), 754–761. https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2016.40

  Summary:

  The purpose of the study was to help participants identify common stress responses, recognize signs of job burnout, and utilize healthy coping strategies. Participants were assigned to the Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community (RCHC) program. Measures utilized include the Professional Quality of Life Scale (ProQOL), Perceived Stress Scale, Stress Arousal Checklist, Social Provisions Scale, The Ways of Coping Tool, Coping Self-Efficacy Scale, and study-developed surveys. Results indicate that from baseline to the post-workshop assessment, perceived knowledge scores increased, acute stress scores decreased, and social provisions increased. Limitations include the lack of a control group, length of uncontrolled follow up (3 weeks), and the small sample size. Note: This article was not used in the rating process due to the lack of a control group.

• Yuma, P., Powell, T., Scott, J., & Vinton, M. (2019). Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community: A post-disaster group work intervention for healthcare and social service providers. Journal of Family Strengths, 19(1), Article 8. https://doi.org/10.58464/2168-670X.1402