UMB Digital Archive

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The UMB Digital Archive is a service of the Health Sciences and Human Services Library (HSHSL) that collects, preserves, and distributes the academic works of the University of Maryland, Baltimore. It is a place that digitally captures the historical record of the campus.

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Recent Submissions

Open Access
Le Baume d'Acier 2
(1825)
Embargo
Reimagining Healthcare Sustainability: Why "Not Burned Out" is the Wrong Goal
(Vital Worklife, 2026-04-21) Bell, Derek
For years, healthcare leadership has treated burnout as a problem to be "fixed" or a metric to be mitigated. However, as the industry faces a deepening talent war, it is becoming clear that the absence of burnout is not the same as the presence of health. To build a sustainable future, we must move beyond simple mitigation and embrace clinician flourishing as a strategic asset. The True Cost of Inaction The financial implications of professional distress are no longer speculative. The U.S. healthcare system loses approximately $4.6 billion annually due to physician turnover and reduced clinical hours. With 43% of healthcare workers reporting professional distress, the status quo is a direct threat to organizational infrastructure. Retention is now a matter of flourishing rather than just salary; 33% of clinicians identify well-being as a primary driver in their career transitions. To compete, organizations must pivot from reactive support to proactive, whole-person cultivation.
Embargo
Suicide Prevention: 6 Assumptions That Keep Healthcare Systems Stuck (and How to Lead Differently)
(Vital WorkLife, 2026-03-18) Wojnar, Christopher
Healthcare leaders care deeply about their people. Over the past several years, our awareness of clinician burnout, moral injury, and suicide risk has grown substantially. National data confirms that certain healthcare roles experience elevated suicide risk compared to the general population. Federal investments — including the reauthorization of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act through 2030 — reflect a national recognition that clinician well-being requires sustained system-level attention. But awareness alone does not prevent suicide. It is time to ask the harder question: Where are well-intentioned systems still unintentionally stuck? Across healthcare organizations, predictable high-risk windows emerge where distress can rapidly escalate. This is especially true during the “peri-job-loss” period — impending termination, forced leave, licensure threats — and related role-loss events. Investigation narratives show that job-related stressors for nurses and physicians often converge around threatened work status, substance use, and legal or financial pressures.
Open Access
Mental Health AI Is Operating Without Clinically-Informed Safety Standards. That Should Alarm Us
(2026-05-26) Wallace, Scott
Imagine a pharmaceutical company distributing an antidepressant through an app, letting users self-select their dose, with no licensed prescriber, no contraindication screening, and no adverse event reporting. The institutional consequences would be swift and severe as regulators have the authority and the obligation to act. Now remove the word “pharmaceutical” and replace it with “AI.” The rest of the description holds but the accountability does not. There are currently thousands of mental health apps and AI tools available for download, the overwhelming majority carrying no clinical validation that they work and no evidence that they are safe. The field has looked at this and decided it is acceptable. It is not. Mental health AI is distributing something that acts on psychological states at clinical scale in populations carrying diagnosable conditions, without the evidentiary requirements, deployment constraints, or accountability mechanisms that any other clinical intervention faces.
Open Access
A Growing Trend in Modern Policing: First-Responders in Mental Health Emergencies
(Chestnut Health Systems, 2026-05-29)
In a recent episode of the Catalyst podcast, Edwardsville, Illinois, Police Chief Michael Fillback revealed a growing reality in law enforcement: officers are frequently the first responders to behavioral health (mental health and substance use) crises. The discussion highlighted two questions this raises for modern policing: Why has this responsibility expanded? What training and expertise do officers need to respond effectively? The exchange underscores a wider transformation underway nationwide, where law enforcement has taken on an expanded role in responding to behavioral health crises. Most Americans picture police officers primarily as crime-fighters who respond to burglaries, traffic stops, or violent incidents. Yet across the country, a growing share of 911 calls involve people experiencing acute behavioral health crises. These situations often stem from untreated mental illness, substance use disorders, or both. In many communities, police have become the default first responders due to gaps in behavioral health treatment. While estimates vary, studies consistently show these calls make up a substantial portion of police work—often between seven and 20 percent of encounters, with some jurisdictions reporting even higher levels. This shift has placed departments in a position few anticipated decades ago. In Edwardsville and communities like it, leaders such as Chief Fillback must navigate the reality of handling these calls safely and effectively, training officers appropriately, and building partnerships with behavioral health experts. These decisions are fundamentally reshaping modern policing.