“With a broken heart,” Fogarty said in an
email to the college, “I am writing to inform
you of the death of Matt Wittman…. At this
time our focus is on doing what we can to
help his family and friends through this most
difficult time, but our sympathy extends to each
of you as members of a College of Medicine
family built upon a mission of compassion.”
Adam Jaffe, who graduated in May, said he
and Matt Wittman had started out in the same
learning community.
“Hearing the news was like a nightmare,”
Jaffe said. “I think we knew he was struggling in
school, but depression is kind of like wearing a
mask. It’s hard to see when someone’s in a crisis
at times. We felt we kind of failed Matt. And
that’s hard.”
Painter said Wittman’s death sent an
unmistakable message: “Here we think we do
such a terrific job with learning communities
and all of this stuff, and students still felt
isolated. They were isolating themselves. It
wasn’t that we were this horrible system. But it’s
endemic in any kind of system where people
“This whole committee and conversation
all have differing levels of resilience and vastly
is really important,” said Jaffe, now a first- different ideas of what wellness is. And when we
year resident at the University of Alabama at neglect to discuss wellness in this individualized
Birmingham. “Because no one should have to way, we risk alienating some.”
go through that. And no one should feel like
they’re going through this alone.”
Reactions to the wellness emphasis vary.
“In my classes, when the word ‘wellness’ is
Plus, each person’s level of burnout is
different.
“It can be difficult for someone who has
natural resilience, and therefore has not
brought up, you can sometimes hear an audible experienced burnout, to fully recognize their
moan,” said Wellness Committee member Ryan own method of wellness,” Earwood said. “I’ve
Earwood, a third-year student in Orlando. talked to people in my own class who say, ‘We
So after a tearful, student-organized tribute “This puzzled me for a while. Now, though, don’t need wellness, we just need to suck it
to Wittman in the auditorium, people began to I realize that, across the field, as we’ve learned up.’ That same student will then turn around
climb out of those silos to talk. about the impact of burnout, we’ve tried to and, without recognizing it as wellness, engage
Thus the Wellness Committee was born. introduce a one-size-fits-all model of wellness. with a social support group that adds to their
Among its 19 members – representing every This model often integrates great practices like wellbeing.”
constituency in the College of Medicine – was mindfulness, yoga, meditation and more. Its Jaffe. downfall is that it won’t work for everyone. We
If you don’t struggle with burnout, he said,
have compassion for those who do. “We have
15
we just lose sight of each other.”
tend to get in their own little silos at times, and