Caring for Ourselves with eMH
In 2005 the Royal Australian College of GPs published Keeping the Doctor Alive: A Self Care Guidebook for Medical Practitioners.
The intent of the guidebook was “to facilitate discussion and exploration of the personal and professional issues facing medical practitioners”. It provided recommendations in three key areas:
- Maintaining an effective support network, both professional and personal
- Finding an independent GP to care for your own health
- Strengthening management skills so the administrative aspects of medical practice do not become overwhelming
Has this advice been heeded? Has it effectively improved the health and wellbeing of medical practitioners in Australia? Beyondblue surveyed the mental health of doctors and medical students in Australia and released its report in October 2013. The report’s first key finding was that doctors reported substantially higher rates of psychological distress and attempted suicide compared to both the Australian population and other Australian professionals.
At the AMSA 2015 convention in Melbourne this week medical students heard about the need for selfcare in a plenary led by Dr Mukesh Haikerwal and including Prof Patrick McGorry and cardiologist and beyond blue ambassador Dr Geoff Toogood. Surrounded as I was by medical students playing with their smart phones (admittedly a few were tweeting questions to the screen but the tell-tale blue of Facebook was very visible) I couldn’t help but wonder how much of the message was getting through.
But I also thought - this is a generation of medical students who as doctors will make good use of the internet and the health resources to be found there.
Online CBT programs provide doctors and medical students with the opportunity to learn how to apply CBT strategies in their own lives as well as giving them tools to help teach those very valuable skills to their patients. How can we encourage doctors and medical students to use these programs?
Gerhard is a full professor of Clinical Psychology at Linköping University, Sweden since 2003, an
d affiliated researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Sweden. Professor Andersson is an internationally recognized researcher in the field of CBT delivered through information and communication technology, as well as the author of the book “The Internet and CBT: a clinical guide”.
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