Behavioral and physical health are intertwined, yet health systems are still developing effective alternatives to address emergency care for mental health. While every healthcare worker is trained in CPR for physical crises such as heart attacks, many may not be prepared to handle a mental health emergency.
Renton, Wash.-based Providence’s Well Being Trust recognized this gap and launched emotional CPR — connect, partner, response — an AI-driven role-play training tool designed to democratize mental health crisis response skills and build confidence across the healthcare workforce, Arpan Waghray, MD, CEO of the foundation, told Becker’s.
Providence invested $100 million as an endowment to create Well Being Trust. The foundation is dedicated to advancing the mental, social and spiritual health for all.
Through its No One Cares Alone program — which combines proactive outreach, leadership training and peer support to Providence’s 125,000 caregivers — the system developed an interactive training using AI chatbots to guide caregivers through real-time mental health scenarios.
“Even if mental health is not your core expertise, if you’re a cardiology nurse or an oncology nurse, or in the ER as a tech or a pharmacy tech, everyone can gain from this,” Dr. Waghray said.
For example, a healthcare worker may join a remote afternoon meeting and notice their colleague seems off. For many, initiating a conversation in this scenario can be difficult, especially if colleague indicates they are feeling suicidal. Caregivers must then be ready to respond and offer support. Each situation is unique.
“We heard over and over again that when somebody is suicidal or they seem off, [colleagues may say] ‘I don’t know how to respond, and I’m scared to ask them the questions, because then I don’t know what to do,’” he said.
The program provides a straightforward way for caregivers — regardless of background or specialty — to support someone in a mental health crisis, with the goal of enhancing engagement and effective interaction. Dr. Waghray said the healthcare industry should democratize mental health knowledge.
“We keep talking to the behavioral health experts who run the inpatient site, but the reality is, 70% to 80% of [individuals] don’t receive care with them,” he said. “So they might be doing a stellar job over there, but it doesn’t matter if you know that many people are not receiving care with them — they’re outside. So we meet people where they’re at.”
In many cases, colleagues may be the first to notice a mood change or behavioral shift. While they may not immediately offer clinical resources, initiating a conversation and showing care “could be the difference between life and death,” Dr. Waghray said.
Although program impact data is limited due to anonymity, Providence caregivers have reported that prior to training, they might not have asked the right question or reached out, Dr. Waghray said. After the training, they did — and realized their colleagues were experiencing crises.
