By Michael Langford, Chief Diversity Officer, WestCare Foundation
Those of us who accept the awesome responsibility of providing human services and quality care to the communities that WestCare serves must also acknowledge and take time to meet the needs of our selves. Oftentimes, we are so engaged and consumed with providing a process of healing for our clients and achieving desired outcomes for others that we end up compromising the physical, spiritual, and mental health of ourselves. Over the last year and a half, the COVID-19 pandemic has challenged essential frontline service providers to give more of themselves for an extended and stressful period of time. I am always impressed and amazed when I stop to reflect on the lives that are being improved and restored on a daily basis through WestCare’s many evidenced-based programs across the country. It seems that everyone has finally come to the conclusion that human service providers are essential and are critically important to the overall health of society. I encourage us to be mindful of self-care and the personal tools needed to engage in a process of healing for everyone that we come in contact with including our clients, our families, and ourselves.
Just remember that you are an important part of WestCare’s mission and we need you to be the best you that you can possibly be.
Michael submitted this article shortly before his passing.
He will be missed, but he will never be forgotten.
(1958 – 2021)
