Development and evaluation of employee wellness sessions in response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread mental health distress. Few COVID-19 employee wellness initiatives have been evaluated and have primarily focused on frontline health care workers. This study described the feasibility and utilization of, and participant satisfaction for virtual COVID-19 employee wellness sessions at a large university and health system.

Thomas Jefferson University behavioral health consultants (BHCs) and behavioral health leaders developed and offered JeffBeWell (JBW) wellness sessions over 17 weeks during March 2020 through July 2020. Sessions were advertised via mass emails and an employee intranet. Multiple live thirty-minute sessions were offered weekly; facilitators provided psychoeducation and offered coping tools. Topics included working remotely, parenting, sleep, nutrition, grief, anxiety, and yoga and relaxation. Attendance was tracked and participants were asked to complete satisfaction surveys; survey data was analyzed using descriptive statistics.

A total of 388 sessions were offered with 1,324 participants. Attendance rose in weeks 1-5, followed by a decline and then a second increase in Weeks 15 through 17, 213 participants (16%) responded to the survey. The largest portion of respondents were in academic administrative roles (46%), followed by clinical providers and staff (34%) and faculty and students (9%). Of respondents, 91% of respondents felt that the sessions met their expectations, 92% felt the session helped them, and 92% planned to attend future sessions.

JBW sessions were feasible to implement, attended by diverse participants and well received by survey respondents, although attendance has fluctuated during the pandemic. BHCs have refined sessions based on participant feedback and are tailoring more sessions to specific audiences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).