Despite high rates of distress, burnout, and substance abuse, many students, residents and attending physicians in need do not make use of the wellness resources available to them, either at their medical school or outside of it. Too often, administrators learn of a trainee or attending physician in distress only after the fact, evidenced by academic failure, profoundly unprofessional behavior, or suicide. It is critical for institutions to adopt more proactive approaches for earlier identification of at-risk individuals, in order to facilitate earlier referral and support, before individuals become overwhelmed. In this highly interactive session, we will explore a variety of proactive approaches schools can use to achieve earlier identification of at-risk trainees and faculty and invite participants to share approaches used in their own institutions. In addition, we will report results from 4 medical schools implementing an innovative program, called \"Early Alert\", which uses text messaging to conduct weekly confidential check-ins across a variety of wellness domains and offers immediate referrals to support resources when needed. This session is geared toward medical educators who seek to learn about and share approaches for early identification of at-risk trainees and faculty.
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