For more than a year, the pandemic has been affecting the mental and emotional health of people working on the front lines of hospitals throughout Brazil and the world. There are countless factors that overload doctors, nurses and other professionals who work in the health sector. There are many demands: home, children, work and the new waves of covid make the situation worse every day and with a feeling that this challenging moment has no end. All of this can generate toxic stress, tiredness, irritability, depression and anxiety. In this context, in order to contribute to emotional relief, stress reduction and strengthening the resilience of professionals working on the front line in the fight against coronavirus, Non-Violent Communication instructors Sandra Caselato, Yuri Haasz and Daniele Rafael, together with psychologist Flavia Zanini, from the Center for Comprehensive Attention to Women's Health (Caism), developed the “Emergency Empathy” project.
The proposal is to teach simple practices of self-regulation and co-regulation of stress through self-connection and empathetic listening, based on the principles of Non-Violent Communication to professionals who are going through moments of extreme physical and psychological overload. The objective of the practices is to increasingly provide autonomy and self-care and mutual care skills that can be used in everyday life, strengthening a culture of empathy, acceptance and humanization of relationships in the environment.
The practice that supports and inspires the project is Non-Violent Communication or CNV, as it is also called. It was systematized by the American psychologist Marshall Rosenberg and its objective is to humanize relationships through practices focused on empathy and authenticity, and can be used to emotionally support people who are going through moments of great stress.
Yuri Haasz, one of the project's creators, is the first Brazilian certified by the International Center for Non-Violent Communication and, together with psychologist Sandra Caselato, has been spreading this knowledge throughout the country in the most diverse areas for over 10 years: health, education, companies, government, communities, conflict mediation, among others.
Business consultant Daniele Rafael and Caism psychologist Flavia Zanin, also creators of the project, have been offering for a year, through Unicamp's School of Corporate Education (Educorp), the Collaborative Leadership course, where they share the basic concepts of Communication No Violent. Twenty collaborators from hospitals and Unicamp employees, who had contact with CNV in this course, are working on the project as “Empathy Multipliers”.
The positive impacts that CNV was already bringing to the institution's employees was a fundamental factor in the great acceptance and success of the project, which has the support of representatives from the Human Resources Division, the Health Quality and Safety Center and the Nursing Department of the HC (Hospital das Clínicas) and Caism.
The pilot project was developed and implemented between the months of May and July 2021 and a working network with 40 professionals was created. In addition to the “Empathy Multipliers” and the execution team, 8 NVC facilitators were invited to participate as “Bridge Supporters”: Alieth Cavassa, Cristiane Chiofalo, Iuri Storch, Juliana Polloni, Karoline Rempel, Paula Pontvianne, Pedro Consorte, Renata Jurema and Renata Kurtz.
Operation of the pilot project
CNV facilitators Sandra and Yuri offered training to these 40 people in the work network, who then disseminated the practices exponentially to hospital employees working on the front lines of Covid-19.
100 HC and Caism employees signed up for the pilot project, who were able to learn practices of self-regulation of stress, self-empathy, empathetic listening and build support networks to face challenges with new tools and more internal resources.
The project has demonstrated the importance of caring for the people they care for, how much they need listening and welcoming, and how much practices based on the principles of NVC can support the creation of humanized, collaborative and welcoming environments, capable of transforming and minimize the impacts of emotional stress that the pandemic is generating on the population and especially on those on the front lines of hospitals.
The idea is to maintain the same structure as the pilot project and thus continue with listening and welcoming practices so that other people benefit and learn ways to take care of themselves and support each other, especially in challenging times like the one we are currently experiencing.
Read some testimonials:
“I learned to listen to myself and that I’m not a superhero to handle everything. I can share the load and ask for help.” Maria Cristina Lourençoni, Hemocentro de Campinas Ombudsman, empathy multiplier.
“Exercising attentive listening and, especially, at the current moment, feeling that I can be heard was a great relief in the week I'm living!! I really appreciate the space and the availability of the team!!!” Daniela Gracioli de Almeida Bacha, doctor at HC, participant in the project.
“I am very happy to be part of this initiative. Both for my own learning, and for being able to contribute in some way to, collectively, getting through the pandemic situation with more success, peace and balance.” Iuri Storch, NVC facilitator.
