Healing the Healers: Ivyland Psychotherapist Dr. Mona Masood Details a Help Line for Healthcare Workers

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A mental health resource for embattled healthcare workers has been very active for the duration of the pandemic. Its champion, Dr. Mona Masood, an Ivyland psychotherapist, provided details to 6abc’s Matt O’Donnell for Inside Story.

Dr. Masood’s phone resource, the Physician Support Line, is open to anyone in the healthcare field. It is a free, confidential sympathetic ear, available seven days a week.

The line is meant to counter what Dr. Masood calls “compassion fatigue.”

She defines it as a reaction to “prolonged trauma that requires emotional investment.”

Healthcare workers in the thick of the COVID-19 outbreak are particularly susceptible, making the service steadily busy.

“There have been over 3,000 calls. And we have yet to see it slow down,” Dr. Masood reported.

As a burnout remedy, she encourages perspective. She reminds healthcare professionals to consider that they are only humans, and as such, there is only so much they can do.

“What you give to others: It doesn’t have to be everything,” she advises. “You are allowed to be well. You don’t have to set yourself on fire to keep others warm. That is not selfish. It is self-care,” she concludes.

The Physician Support Line number is 888.409.0141.

More on Dr. Mona Masood — and her thoughts on the toll of COVID-19 on healthcare professionals — is at Inside Story.

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