AMA VICDOC Winter 2025 - Magazine - Page 46
D R KYM J EN K I N S A M
WE'VE SEEN A POSITIVE SHIFT IN
THE DOCTOR'S HEALTH SPACE
IN THE PAST DECADE OR SO.
-
When I originally started working with
the Victorian Doctors Health Program
in 2007 I almost had to apologise that I
was working in the field. I spent a lot of
time explaining that doctors get sick too
and that we need to look after the carers
so they can do the caring. One of the
good things to come out of COVID is a
huge shift in the increased acceptability
of seeking help if you're a healthcare
practitioner. There’s still a stigma, but it’s
decreasing. It’s getting to be okay, and
it has got to be okay for a doctor to say,
“Hey, this is tough. I'm not traveling too
well in my career or my home life; I need
a helping hand.”
A LOT OF DOCTORS’ MENTAL HEALTH
PROBLEMS AREN'T RELATED TO THE
WORKPLACE AT ALL, BECAUSE
DOCTORS ARE PEOPLE TOO.
-
We have the same sort of problems as
the public. We get sick, we have financial
problems, relationship strain, kids to
worry about. Some of us also come into
this world with a biological loading –
a genetic inheritance that predisposes us
to mental illness. We all need to mitigate
the effects of stresses that come our way,
but I think if we blame all doctors’ mental
health struggles on the workplace, we’re
not doing ourselves justice or validating
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ourselves as human beings. We do need
to make sure that the workplace doesn't
make problems worse or create mental
health problems for people.
WE NEED TO CREATE A CULTURE IN
HEALTHCARE WORKPLACES THAT
ALLOWS PEOPLE TO GET THE HELP
THEY NEED WHEN THEY NEED IT.
-
To support doctors' mental health, we
need to take a whole systems approach,
from the workplace and workplace culture
to employment contracts, doctors’ hours,
to the relationships people have with
their colleagues at work and the amount
of work expected of them. As well as the
chance to unwind between shifts, doctors
need opportunities to debrief or offload
and support each other at work – so many
factors to address if we really care about
the health of our doctors. Prevention is
always better than cure; let's deal with
issues and problems while they're still
small before they escalate or tip over
into burnout, depression or other
mental health problems.
