Now two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare providers on the frontline have experienced unprecedented levels of stress and burnout. To support providers in this environment, the Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies (CASAT) recently released “Exploring the Importance of Resilience in Healthcare,” the second season of the “CASAT Conversations” podcast.

The “CASAT Conversations” podcast explores the complex connection between how environment, behaviors and actions impact health and wellbeing. It is developed and produced by CASAT, which is affiliated with the School of Public Health (formerly Community Health Sciences) at the University of Nevada, Reno.

“‘CASAT Conversations’ is geared toward having meaningful conversations with people sharing their capacity for personal growth and change, coupled with subject matter expert educational insights,” Heather Haslem, the podcast’s host and senior project coordinator of workforce development at CASAT, said.

This season, which was published in fall 2021, covers the psychological impacts of COVID-19, ways to heal from anxiety, burnout, stress, trauma and disaster and other research related to building resilience.

“We wanted to create a podcast that focused on the important topic of resilience as we continue to move through the pandemic, so that we could help shine a light on the latest research and interview experts in the field on how to support wellbeing and resilience for healthcare providers,” Haslem said.

The center launched the “CASAT Conversations” channel in spring 2021 in partnership with the Nevada Department of Behavioral Health to reach the families of first responders who were unable to attend in-person training.

“We came up with the idea of launching a podcast as we wanted to support people having access to timely and important behavioral health topics and we wanted people to have access to this information on their own time,” Haslem said.

In addition to “CASAT Conversations,” the center has launched three other channels as part of the CASAT Podcast Network, with dozens of episodes on a variety of topics such as wellness, collegiate life and professional development. Listeners can access podcast episodes on Anchor.fm, Spotify and other listening sites.

As for what is next for the “CASAT Conversations” podcast, Haslem said to expect season three soon.

“We will be launching season three of ‘CASAT Conversations’ in the spring of 2022. We are excited to explore our next topic of health equity.”