Wayne Powell, Security Training Manager, and Reverend Zorina Costello, DMin, MDiv, MS, who helped create a resilience program specifically for security officers.
Hospital security officers are often our first human contact when we walk into a hospital. While they share the job description of “front-line worker,” along with doctors and nurses, they are both highly visible and yet “unsung” for all they do.
As the pandemic swept through New York City hospitals in 2020, their jobs transformed overnight as they became enforcers of new COVID-19 rules. One of the toughest rules: telling some visitors they could not come in. “Visitors to The Mount Sinai Hospital were not happy to hear about that. They wanted to see their loved ones, and we had to tell them ‘just one of you can go up,’” says Wayne Powell, Security Training Manager at The Mount Sinai Hospital.
One year into the pandemic, the faculty of Mount Sinai’s Center for Stress, Resilience, and Personal Growth took notice of the unique strain security officers were shouldering and created a resilience program, specifically tailored to officers like Mr. Powell. And more recently, they published a paper describing their approach and results.
“It was like a counseling session where you take a time out and reflect and think about the positive things and channel that to something great,” Wayne Powell, Security Training Manager, said of the program.
The Center opened in 2020 to serve as a resource for all Mount Sinai Health System staff and students. Staffed by social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, and a healthcare chaplain, the Center provides educational workshops, confidential behavioral health care, and a resilience-building mobile app to faculty, staff, and trainees. Center faculty and staff also regularly publish peer-reviewed scientific articles about their findings, so that other health systems may benefit.
Reverend Zorina Costello, DMin, MDiv, MS, played a key role in creating the security officer program during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021. In addition to her Doctorate of Ministry in Pastoral Counseling. Rev. Costello has training in counseling, providing the skills to develop workshops tailored to security personnel that would have an impact.
“They often work alone and have few opportunities to socialize with their colleagues. In addition, they face myriad physical hazards and long working hours, making them susceptible to psychological stress, fatigue, and occupational burnout,” says the Rev. Dr. Costello.
During her 10 years at Mount Sinai, she has had the opportunity to meet the security team beyond just “hello” or “good morning.” During her lengthy tenure in Mount Sinai’s chaplaincy, she had become the main point of contact for staff when colleagues passed away, giving her an intimate connection with hospital staff, including the security team.
While facilitating services for security personnel over the years, she started to understand their unique culture. “I was beginning to see how their isolation was affecting them and how the services presented unique opportunities for isolated workers to come together,” says Rev. Dr. Costello.
Rev. Dr. Costello served as co-author of a paper titled “A Resilience Program for Hospital Security Officers During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using a Community Engagement Model,” published in the Journal of Community Health in September 2023.
The paper describes how she and colleagues at the Center first conducted a pilot program and then launched a second program based on feedback they received, the latter comprised of twelve short briefings in which faculty and staff at the Center provided education around psychological first aid (PFA). PFA is an evidence-based approach to providing emotional support and ensuring safety in the acute aftermath of a stressful event. The program was well attended, reaching 107 officers who identified mostly as male (86 percent) and people of color (95 percent).
Viewed as a success, and fully embraced by security personnel, the program will be replicated at Mount Sinai West and Mount Sinai Morningside, according to Rev. Dr. Costello.
Security officers participated in 20-minute briefings that included a visual presentation with discussion focused on acknowledging the officers’ contribution to workplace safety and their exposure to violence; educating officers about clinical services available to them through the Center; and, discussing basic psychological first aid and coping skills. In a follow-up survey, the team found that the majority of officers (71 percent) felt that the workshops gave them the tools to do their jobs well and that the skills they honed were relevant (72 percent) to their lives outside of work.
“An important aspect of the briefings was to share resources at Mount Sinai for additional support, due to the officers’ limited knowledge of how to access mental health supports. While little is known about these kinds of interventions for security personnel, we do know from studies of police officers that two key impediments to getting help include not knowing how to access help and concerns about the stigma,” said Rev. Dr. Costello.
This work was funded in part through the support of the Aronson Family Foundation and by grants from the Health Resources and Services Administration and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
Mr. Powell, who is looking forward to his 60th birthday in December, has served Mount Sinai for 27 years. Yet this was his first exposure to these beneficial mental health concepts.
“For me personally, it was very successful, especially coming off the COVID-19 pandemic. It was like a counseling session where you take a time out and reflect and think about the positive things and channel that to something great,” says Mr. Powell. As he onboards new security personnel, he has made it a priority to sign his employees up for this training program.