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Care for the Caregiver: Supporting Our Caregivers and Improving Patient Care

At Keck Medicine of USC, taking care of the emotional and mental health of our employees is of paramount importance. Caring for our caregivers is directly linked to our ability to deliver quality, innovative and compassionate care to our patients.

The stressors of the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic highlighted the critical need to establish and sustain comprehensive services that support the overall health and well-being of our caregivers, so they can deliver exceptional medicine at every stage of the patient care journey, while thriving personally.

Care for the Caregiver (C4C) is a comprehensive program designed to ease potential work environment stress for our dedicated health care staff.

Emotional Well-Being Support Services

Our employees have been working harder than ever during the pandemic to provide the highest level of care to our patients. Our Care for the Caregiver program, in collaboration with the Department of Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences and the USC WorkWell Center, is here to offer support during these challenging times in the following ways:

  • Clinical referrals for mental health care needs
  • Emotional Support Line
  • Peer Support Program to connect employees with a peer to help process emotional events
  • Schwartz Rounds for caregivers to discuss the social and emotional issues they face in caring for patients and families
  • Support groups for units
  • Tailored workshops to address stress, burnout, resilience and more

Emotional Support Line

Any health care worker or family member, over the age of 18, can call (323) 865-9897 to receive free, informal telephone support. It is an opportunity to discuss stress you are feeling from working on the front line, working remotely, juggling the demands of family and work, fears of exposure, being quarantined, the inability to see loved ones and other topics. This is intended to provide empathy and guidance not formal psychotherapy. Our team is available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Support Care for the Caregiver

A gift of any amount will help ensure that our caregivers can remain healthy, physically and mentally, and continue to provide our patient community with the highest quality care.

If you would like to support the ongoing compassionate and innovative work of Care for the Caregiver, please visit our donation’s web page.

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Our Team

tammy capretta

Tammy Capretta, RN, MPH, is the Chief Transformation and Risk Officer at Keck Medicine. She co-leads Care for the Caregiver for Keck Medicine.

Steven Siegel, MD, PhD, is the Chief Mental Health and Wellness Officer at Keck Medicine and co-leads Care for the Caregiver. Dr. Siegel manages the programmatic expansion of C4C to create programs that meet the dynamic needs of a large and diverse workforce.

Jonathan Wong, PsyD, is the Clinical Director of C4C and leads the development and implementation of clinical programming. Dr. Wong also provides emotional well-being support to our health system workforce.

Dara Weinraub is the Program Manager for C4C. In her role, she manages the program’s offerings and coordinates the office’s priorities.

Ed Hall is the Executive Administrator of the Office of Integrated Risk Management. The newly created C4C office is fully integrated within Keck Medicine, with administrative and budgetary liaison under his direction.

John Brodhead, MD, is the Chief of Medicine at Keck Hospital of USC and focuses on understanding and prioritizing the needs of our physicians and health care staff.