How Frontier Health Supports Employees with Vicarious Trauma and Compassion Fatigue

About Frontier Health

Frontier Health is the leading behavioral health organization in its region, providing trauma-focused, person-centered care that helps children and adults achieve their full potential. Through more than 60 programs and locations across northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, the organization supports individuals facing mental health challenges, substance use concerns, intellectual and developmental disabilities, homelessness, and poverty.

The population challenge

The nature of behavioral healthcare requires employees to consistently show up for others during some of life’s most difficult moments. Over time, that emotional burden can contribute to compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and burnout. Frontier Health needed an accessible way to help employees prioritize their own wellbeing while continuing to care for others.

The Calm Health approach

Frontier Health chose Calm Health for its proactive mental‑health screenings that mirror the assessments staff use with patients and for its seamless integration with the organization’s EAP and other internal resources, which helps drive utilization. In addition, the platform provides tailored recommendations, targeted support for health conditions, and mindfulness and stress-management tools that employees can use whenever they need support.
“Calm Health is easy for our staff to navigate—they can save their favorite content, get clear guidance, and see personalized recommendations based on their interests,” says Tassone. “Having those tailored courses show up right on their front page makes it so much easier for us to support them and keep them engaged.”