Virtual Balint Groups During COVID-19: Exploring Race and Equity in a CHC-Based Family Medicine Residency Program

Abstract

The Lawrence Family Medicine residency was created in the 1990s as the first community health center- sponsored residency with the goal of reducing health disparities. Balint groups have been a part of the wellbeing and behavioral health curriculum for many years. The population of Lawrence, MA is primarily a resource-poor, Latinx, immigrant population. In March of 2020, the Covid pandemic highlighted health disparities in this community. The spike in cases in 2020 also impacted the residency community with overwhelming needs of sick and dying patients in newly created, resident and faculty-run Covid units. Our early ignorance about transmission, prophylaxis, treatment and even prognosis made the work incredibly difficult. George Floyd’s murder added the additional stress of social unrest in response to a persistent pattern of racism and unequal justice. To help process trauma residents felt working in terrifying conditions, often in medically futile situations with patients who spent their last hours without family at the bedside, we turned to biweekly Balint groups and added additional resident support sessions on the off weeks. Residents seamlessly adopted videoconferencing as the Balint platform, allowing them to attend a group session without risk of infection. The residents, being a diverse group, were able to offer multiple perspectives and process the traumatic issues of disproportionate suffering for their patients, uncertainty and frustration of the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism. We found a video Balint group permitted residents to explore their divergent experiences and feelings and offer support to each other in a very uncertain time.