(PS12-B33) Live Online Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Intervention for Community Health Workers: Stress-related Outcomes

Background: Health disparities among low-resource communities lead to poor physical and mental health outcomes. To reduce health disparities, the United States has looked to global health initiatives and has begun to rely on lay health workers more consistently as a promising and sustainable workforce. Community Health Worker (CHWs) work alongside the local health care system to connect vulnerable populations to needed care. However, the demand of their role puts CHWs at risk for stress, burnout, and vicarious trauma. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is a stress reduction intervention that has been empirically supported to reduce stress and burnout in numerous populations. To support CHWs, this study aims to evaluate a six-week, live, online, low-dose MBSR (MBSR-ld) training to help reduce stress. We anticipate that CHWs will show reduced levels of perceived stress after receiving the intervention.

Methods: An MBSR-ld live online intervention was delivered to Community Health workers working in San Bernardino County (Southern California). Data on CHW stress was collected at baseline and post-intervention. A total of 45 CHWs (91% Female, 80% Hispanic/Latino) responded at baseline, of which 36 responded to post-data.

Results: There were statistically significant differences in mean stress scores on the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) from baseline (N = 45, M = 21.31, SD = 3.82) and post-intervention (N = 36, M = 13.78, SD = 4.70), t(36) = 6.88, p < .001.

Conclusions: This study is the first to explore the effectiveness of a live online MBSR intervention to reduce stress among Community Health Workers. Due to significant findings, this study highlights mindfulness as a useful tool to decrease stress among this vulnerable workforce.