How can we make sure that the people first inline to help others during a crisis are well taken care of themselves? That question during the COVID pandemic led to the creation of Penn COBALT, a tool for the entire Penn Medicine community to help manage mental, financial, and personal health. Guest Rachel Kishton, MD, MSHP, Assistant Professor of Clinical Family Medicine and Community Health and Medical Director of the Penn Medicine COBALT Program joins us to share how Penn achieves results through this innovative tool.

Alongside host Meryl Cohen, they discuss how COBALT came to exist and the full breadth of resources available in the tool. Plus, they share how COBALT is designed to minimize access barriers due to stigma our faculty and staff may face regarding their own mental health. They talk about which tools are most utilized (one is free counseling sessions with one fo the 3 clinicians on the team) and which features are under-utilized (one is group sessions to help teams manage high stress events). They share how easy & cost effective it is to use COBALT and how any individual in the Penn Medicine community (not just faculty) should know about it and explore it.

To access COBALT, you can go to www.penncobalt.com.

Services include:

• Therapy
• Medication Prescriber
• Group Sessions
• Wellness Coaching
• Self-help Resources
• Spiritual Support
• Crisis Support
• An assessment to help you determine what exists for you