The Battle Within is a nonprofit organization in the Kansas City area providing mental health counseling services to military veterans and first responders.
Due to the COVID-19 crisis and the mental strain health care workers are facing, The Battle Within is now adding doctors, nurses, and other health care providers to the list of people who can receive six free counseling sessions.
Justin Hoover, executive director for The Battle Within, explained that health care workers are dealing with trauma like soldiers on the front lines of the battle in a war.
"The doctors and nursing and people are under tremendous strain caring for their patients, which sometimes includes being the only person in the room when the patient is dying," he said. "They have their fellow co-workers; but they need to talk with a mental health professional to help them navigate what they're seeing and experiencing."
The counseling program is called the Warrior Teletherapy Network.
To get six free counseling sessions, doctors, nurses, other health care workers, firefighters, police and military veterans can visit The Battle Wtihin website.
Clinical therapists from across the Kansas City area have signed up to provide the counseling services, and more are responding.
Therapists will work with clients to set a convenient time for counseling sessions.
The University of Kansas Health System provides counseling services to its employees but is also promoting the Warrior Teletherapy Network.
"If healthcare workers do not get mental help, it's possible they will carry the burden of what they're experiencing and it could cause a future mental health breakdown," Hoover said.
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