A UMN initiative, advanced in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Health, has fast-tracked a technology-based resource to help first responders who are at risk for burnout and/or compassion fatigue. Tai Mendenhall, associate professor in Family Social Science and leader for mental health teams in the UMN’s Medical Reserve Corps, is Principal Investigator (PI).

They have launched the First Responder Toolkit App, a scaled-down beta-version of an app that is scheduled to be completed in late 2020. It is designed to help responders from multiple disciplines understand, track, and manage their stress – and can be used on both cell phones and laptops.

“We are pushing out this version now because we believe that it is critical to support our teams during COVID-19,” says Mendenhall. “While a more complex and research-driven version will be completed later this year, we intentionally laid this one out in a simple format so that highly stressed responders can access resources that are easy to use and understand.”

Mendenhall and front-line colleagues in biomedicine, behavioral health, and Fire/Police/EMT used community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods to ensure that the toolkit is user-friendly, accessible, and efficient.

The full research collaboration, “Preventing Compassion Fatigue in Disaster-Responders: Advancing and Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Mobile Self Care App,” is supported by MN-REACH funding.

One of three sites in the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hubs, the University of Minnesota’s MN-REACH program assists researchers with new health-related discoveries navigate the complex path(s) from laboratory to market.