Mind Matters: Your Mental Health Toolkit

Sound mental health is one of the cornerstones of healthy living. If you are struggling mentally, often other areas of your life are affected, as well. Healthcare professionals report some of the highest rates of stress compared to other industries, with 64% reporting they feel an increased sense of stress and 82% stating that their mental health has suffered in the past year.

It’s important to prioritize self-care to help yourself and your patients. Learn how to minimize stress and see what mental health benefits Health Carousel offers, no matter where you are, with our Full Circle of Support. Discover how our benefits help support your health, wealth, career and life.

Say Yes to Less Stress Flipbook

In our Flipbook, we identify common stress triggers, provide you with tips on how to overcome stress and explain how our benefits, from mobile stress management apps to virtual one-on-one visits with a licensed therapist, make getting help easier.

Change your mind (re)set

Everyone has certain situations that act as a stress trigger for them. Once you begin to recognize them, you will be better equipped to handle them. Travelers often report these stress triggers in their daily experience: Being homesick for family, friends, and their home location, having less time to regularly eat and sleep, feeling overwhelmed in a new location, dealing with increased patient loads, and facing difficult patients.

If these triggers sound familiar, remember that there's a path to brighter days. You can tackle many of these challenges with the help of mental health skills and techniques. Take a look at the courses we've listed below. They're absolutely free for members of our healthcare plan. These short courses are ready to help you build your mental health toolkit, no matter where you are.

Our Cost-Free Mental Health Courses

1. Skills to Help with Anxiety

What can you do when you feel overwhelmed with stress or anxiety? In this audio mini-lesson, mindfulness expert and psychologist, Dr. Elisha Goldstein, offers practical advice for navigating what he calls “the loop” — a vicious cycle of negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that can make us feel trapped. In the healthcare field, it is common to face stressful situations. Learn how to face anxious scenarios or the unsettling “what-ifs” of life, so you can be fully present and in the moment.

2. Skills for Better Sleep

Sleep can be more challenging for healthcare professionals, given the nature of working longer shifts and sometimes night shifts. However, consistently getting good sleep is critical to your health, productivity, and relationships. In these lessons, Dr. Wendy Troxel teaches you how sleep works and how to make sleep work better for you. You’ll gain a better awareness of your own sleep habits and walk away with proven strategies to add more and better sleep to your life.

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3. Practicing Mindfulness

Mindfulness is important for keeping us calm, relaxed, and focused on what we need most in any given moment. However, in the busyness of work and life, it can be hard to take time to slow down and take time to practice mindfulness. In these lessons, experienced mindfulness practitioners Alex Haley and Mariann Johnson will lead you through an array of in-the-moment exercises that enable you to practice this skill wherever you are.

4. Cultivating Joy in Times of Pain

It can be hard to move to a new location, leaving behind your loved ones and trading the familiar for the unknown. Sometimes adjustment periods are difficult, and sometimes you are faced with situations you either don’t like or have never dealt with before. Psychologist and self-compassion guru, Tim Desmond, LMFT explains how sadness and joy can — and often do — coexist. He offers a simple strategy for finding joy in even the most difficult of times.

5. Grow Together: The Committed Relationship

Even though you’re traveling, it is important to cultivate relationships where you live and work. Studies show that individuals with the healthiest mental states often have a strong community of friends around them, even if it is only a handful of people. However, strengthening your relationships and building solid friendships takes work. In this course, Jen Elmquist shows you proven ways to better communicate, navigate change, and resolve conflict.