Requesting a consult is easy and confidential.
We welcome your contact via personal email to any one of the RWBC members/consultants or via the Resident Well Being Committee email address under Groups (see RWBC
poster for members info). You are also welcome to approach us whenever you see us in the medical complex or to call or send us a note.
Click here to request a consult.
RWBC began providing consultations in 2005 and meets with 10-15 residents on average per year for consults. Recognition of the benefit of the meetings has led to over half of the consults now being from residents who self-referred. Concerns have addressed a variety of topics including personal, interpersonal, performance, harassment, professionalism and career planning. Our goal is to respond to your request within 24 hours and offer a meeting within 48 hours. If your concern is related to severe depression or suicidal thinking please see the Behavioral Health Services section of the RWBC website for immediate options and support.
What happens in a consult?
Once you contact us and agree to the consultation, we will arrange a meeting with you. Typically consults include two members of RWBC meeting with you through a virtual platform currently due to pandemic guidelines. Meeting typically occur after 5 p.m. to reduce disruptions to your day.
The initial consult is a time for you to share your concerns, for us to listen and then offer feedback on your concerns. We may provide specific recommendations on how to handle the concerns, recommend resources to you for addressing the concerns, request that you meet with us a second time to continue to address your concerns or offer to facilitate referral to mental health providers who work with residents with similar concerns.
Hesitant to contact us?
Here are hesitations other residents noted having, but which they were glad did not stop them from coming in:
- Confidentiality (“My PD will find out”): RWBC contacts are not shared with any DOE staff except in the case of impairment/improper behavior that could affect patient care, concerns for your safety or issues with potential legal ramifications. Consults are not used in any evaluative process re: resident performance. No electronic record is generated from the consult.
- Stigma (“They’ll think I’m weak or a whiner”): Contact with RWBC is a sign of your effort to address concerns in a proactive manner, similar to what we hope our patients will do in their health care. Stress in residency is a normative experience and accepting support and consultation is a healthy response to that experience. DOE created the RWBC to serve residents for exactly this reason and Program Directors have also encouraged residents to use RWBC with this in mind.
- Reprisal (“People will get upset if I take the time to do this”): RWBC accommodates resident training schedules to minimize impact on others for your time to do the consult. All Program Directors are supportive to residents taking the time to meet with RWBC and have done so with prior resident consults with RWBC.
