Who are taking care of the Healthcare Workers in 2025?

healthacare worker on the phone

The mental and emotional well-being of healthcare workers in 2025 remains a significant concern for many of us, particularly from a couples therapy perspective I have concerns with the impact of COVID-19 had on healthcare workers and its impact on us all. Research and anecdotal evidence suggest that many healthcare professionals continue to experience high levels of stress, burnout, and relationship strain, which has a tremendous ripple impact in their communities. Here’s a breakdown based on key factors I have researched & observed working with healthcare professionals & why I recommend supporting them emotionally, physically, financially, socially, spiritually, and sexually. They need our help!

Medical professionals looking over with masks.

Mental & Emotional HealthCare Trends Are Alarming

I see this SO often with our firefighters, law enforcement, caregivers & healers, health care professionals who work across the clock and calendar, tiredless with the sick, the poor, the mentally & physically unwell all in an effort to make us feel safer and more healthy. There is a hidden cost the public doesn’t often see:

• Burnout & Moral Injury: While some healthcare systems have improved support structures, burnout rates remain high, especially in high-pressure fields like emergency medicine, critical care, and nursing. Moral injury—where professionals feel they cannot provide the level of care they wish due to systemic constraints—remains a major contributor to emotional distress, professional burnout, and disruptions for clients.

• Compassion Fatigue & Secondary Trauma: Prolonged exposure to patients' suffering, ethical dilemmas, and high caseloads can lead to emotional exhaustion, impacting interpersonal relationships, connections that often provide further information and collaboration with healing and healthcare results.

• Substance Use & Coping Mechanisms: Some healthcare workers turn to unhealthy coping strategies like alcohol or compound misuse, overworking, or emotional or physical withdrawal instead of seeking professional support. Research reports for 2025 indicicate physicians are impacated by 10-15% by these coping strategies, first responders are often up to 25%. Healing these aspects of their parts is attachment work, they need to be able to do less it’s so hard for healthcare and emergency responders to be able to rest and connect with others without doing and caregiving which needs to be addressed.

Relationship & Family Impacts

Due to the factors that make healthcare so in demand; birth, death, and everything in between, we all have been taught to think of healthcare as the main authority in our lives, therefore everything goes secondary to the job of a healthcare worker. When to rest, when to retire, where to live, how we can disconnect, when to take leave and we hold them as such. We get our notes and our excuses for work and school from healthcare, they determine when we can rest effectively by the systems and therefore mean so much to our infrastructure. They will be mandated to work if they signed a contract. This can also be an unhealthy codependent relationship for the staff if we look at its impact to their family and relationships.

• Intimacy & Connection Impacted: Many healthcare couples report difficulties maintaining emotional and physical intimacy due to significant need for focus and attention, exhaustion, shift work, and emotional depletion secondary to their primary attachment of being a healthcare provider to the masses. Healthcare and law enforcement/military are the backbone of our human infrastructure. Especially difficult when both partners are in healthcare or in law enforcement/military professions.

• High Divorce & Relationship Conflict Rates: While data varies by profession, the demanding nature of healthcare often leads to strained marriages, higher rates of separation, and increased conflict over work-life balance. However overall, physicians divorce less than other healthcare professionals @ 24%, I wonder if its the therapy they chose to engage in as they are aware of the services more, or if they are just too busy to argue over the small things ;)

• Role Reversals & Caregiver Fatigue: Partners and dependents of healthcare workers often feel neglected or overwhelmed by having to provide emotional support while also managing household responsibilities. This is huge, so many professional couples struggles with the hidden values of physicians and how they must be one so much.

Post-Pandemic Changes & Improvements

• Increased Awareness & Mental Health Initiatives: More hospitals and organizations have implemented wellness programs, therapy access, and peer support groups, though many workers still feel hesitant to seek help due to stigma. We need to work on this as a society, community, family member, and partner. Let them get their own help without shame.

• Work-Life Balance Efforts: Some institutions have adopted flexible scheduling, better pay incentives, and support for mental health days, though understaffing issues continue to be a challenge. Additionally the academic institutions they are a part of have also mandated certain hours for rest and restoration between shifts, which is healthier and safer.

• Telehealth & Support Accessibility: Virtual therapy options have made it easier for healthcare professionals to access relationship and individual counseling despite their unpredictable schedules. This has been the most impactful I have seen for them, they can be seen during their lunch hour and help

What This Means for Couples Therapy

healthcare workers in love

• A Need for Specialized Approaches: Therapy models that integrate trauma-informed care, burnout recovery, and flexible scheduling (including virtual, evening, or early hours or walk-and-talk options) are essential.

• Addressing Emotional Disconnection: Couples therapy for healthcare workers often focuses on rebuilding emotional intimacy, improving communication, and developing sustainable coping strategies.

• Preventative Support vs. Crisis Intervention: Encouraging proactive therapy—before crisis emerge—can help prevent long-term relational breakdowns.

Final Takeaway

Healthcare workers in 2025 continue to struggle with mental health and relationship challenges, but there is increasing awareness and institutional support. However, systemic barriers still prevent many from fully accessing the care they need, just like everyone else (i.e.long & inconsistent shifts, health insurance barriers- not many EAP sessions, costs, mistrust of the system, ego, etc). As a couples therapist, adapting approaches to their specific needs—flexible scheduling, burnout-sensitive interventions, and trauma-informed care—can make a significant difference in their well-being and of course, I highly recommend it for EVERYONE!