Physician Wellness

The Bay Area Physician Wellness Collaborative aims to bring together medical group leaders, chief wellness officers, wellness committee chairs, and others who have been charged with “fixing the physician burnout problem” and providing them with expert guidance, tools and resources, a forum for sharing experiences and best practices, and a network of peers to support their work.

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The ACCMA Clinician Wellness Program is a collection of resources developed out of the recognition of the emotional and mental stress that caring for patients can have on physicians, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Managing your stress during this time is as important as managing your physical health. Taking care of yourself and encouraging others to practice self-care will sustain and extend your ability to care for patients in need.

To help successfully navigate these challenging times, the ACCMA has been addressing how physicians can best care for themselves while they care for others. The ACCMA Clinician Wellness Program provides physicians with direct support through:

Individual or Group Psychotherapy Sessions

The ACCMA Clinician Wellness Program is sponsoring individual and small group psychotherapy sessions. Individual physicians can meet with therapists for up to four sessions or groups of three to eight physicians can meet for up to six sessions at no charge. Both physicians and medical residents can take advantage of this ongoing program.

Physician Mental Health Consultations

The ACCMA has developed a list of vetted mental health professionals who are available to meet with physicians for mental health consultations. These services are not sponsored by the ACCMA, so individuals interested in participating should contact the clinicians directly to discuss payment and scheduling.

Immediate Confidential Peer Support

Members of the ACCMA Advisory Committee on Physician Wellbeing are available to provide immediate peer support at no cost. Call (510) 654-5383 or send an email to wellbeing@accma.org​ to request this confidential service.

In addition to the direct support listed above, the ACCMA Clinician Wellness Program also brings together resources, toolkits, webinars, and more to help physicians navigate and improve their own mental health:

  • The ACCMA Wellness Resource library contains available physician wellness on-demand webinars, TedTalks, podcasts, websites, articles, and books for physicians to explore.
  • Free toolkit of resources that address the day-to-day needs of East Bay physicians of all career stages and in all modes of practice – mental health and peer support programs, childhood education and childcare, financial resources for individuals, groceries/food services, free meditation apps, and more.
  • The ACCMA hosted a live online event, “Physician Wellness: Coping with COVID-19,” which is available as on-demand content. Dr. Linda Clever of RENEW offers practical, creative, and effective remedies to deal with the crush on personal and professional lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Tips to help physicians protect themselves and their families: what physicians can do before going to work, at work, and after work/coming home. Tips include how to create a hot zone (contaminated area) near your home entrance and how to take care of your skin. Courtesy of the TPMG Diablo Health and Wellness Team.
  • The Care 4 Caregivers Now program from the California Medical Association connects front-line health care workers with volunteer wellness coaches (physicians and nurses) trained to remotely and confidentially coach their peers to reduce their emotional exhaustion and burnout while improving resiliency. Email CMAwellness@cmadocs.org for more information.