Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community (RCHC)

Note: The RCHC program was not responsive to the CEBC's inquiry. The following information was obtained from publicly available sources.

About This Program

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

Program Overview

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.

Logic Model

The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for Resilience and Coping for the Healthcare Community (RCHC).

Manuals and Training

Publicly available information indicates there is a manual that describes how to deliver this program, and there is some training available for this program.
See contact info below.

Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research

The following studies were not included in rating RCHC on the Scientific Rating Scale...

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

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.

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

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.

Additional References

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

Contact Information

Tara Powell
Email:
Phone: (217) 300-0917

Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: February 2024

Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: June 2024

Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: June 2024