Paging Dr Health

In the general Australian population, one in five people are diagnosed with some form of a mental illness across a 12-month period.

In the medical sector, that number doubles.

Many doctors cited a lack of a support structure, long hours and being over-worked, bullying and harassment as some of the major contributing factors.

In a 2017 blog titled The Dark Side of Doctoring, Dr Eric Levi shared his sentiments, reflecting on how social ties were lost over the course of his career due to the those working factors structures and pressures.

“I’ve lost count of the number of significant life events I have missed (birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, school recitals, first walks, etc.),” Dr Levi wrote.

Professor Leanne Rowe, author of books including Every Doctor: Healthier Doctors = Healthier Patients and former Royal Australian College of General Practitioners chairman, said she believed society needed to listen to doctors to help dispel the stigma surrounding mental health and to encourage all patients to seek support.

“Being pro-active in the approach to listening allows us to work through and help those doctors who need that reassurance. It’s not a simple fix,” Prof. Rowe said.

“Doctors seeking help are patients themselves.”

Another pressure professionals faced is if they are unfit for work there are mandatory reporting laws to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.

If deemed unfit, medical professionals can be de-registered.

The Australian Medical Association indicates that this could be a contributing factor as to why some doctors don’t want to disclose issues they could be facing.

Dr "Sarah", whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, was wary of this when she was diagnosed with clinical depression during her medical school years.

She has since resolved her mental health and recovered, and now happily practices medicine.

Dr Sarah was on the same ward as the Code Black page and highlighted how these incidents are just another factor of the daily stresses of the job.

“Looking after others’ health and well-being is one thing, but you always have to be on the lookout for your own in some roles,” she said.

“I wish to say everyone treated us with the same respect and care we give them, but that’s not true.”

Now a qualified doctor and GP-in-training, Dr Sarah works within a WA hospital, as well as at a private practice.

Her reluctance to speak publicly is an indication of how precarious the medical field is for doctors with mental health concerns.

“Letting your guard down in this industry paints you as weak,” she said.

“No-one respects a ‘weak’ doctor, so you just keep pushing all the issues aside for the sake of your career.”

Her view is supported by the Beyond Blue 2019 Mental Health Survey of Doctors and Medical Students.

More than half of the respondents said ‘being a patient themselves causes embarrassment’ and nearly 90 per cent ‘believed they needed to present a healthy image’.

Additionally, more than 40 per cent of the students surveyed also said they felt ‘doctors with a history of depression or anxiety were less likely to be appointed’.

Bullying and harassment in the workplace was another factor that also contributed to the stress and pressures of medical professional, especially women.

“It’s a boys club in a lot of places, and while there are plenty of women in medicine, there are still gender gaps,” Dr. Sarah said about how medical school and placements were some the bigger hurdles she faced as a junior doctor.

Suicide in the industry is still one of the biggest concerns, with about one-quarter of doctors having suicidal thoughts, compared to about 13 per cent in the general population.

The suicide rate is even higher still, with female medical professionals well over five times more like to attempt suicide than the general female population.

Female medical professionals are also far more likely to commit suicide than men, by nearly three times.

This is a dramatic shift from general rates in Australia, where men make up about 75 per cent of all suicides.

Hospital staff shortages due to COVID-19 have also been a driver for long hours and extra stress over the past two years, and the WA Government increased efforts to get more professionals working and creating new job opportunities.

At the time of writing, WA Health Minister Roger Cook's office had not responded to requests for further comment.

In previous statements, the Minister has driven home the extra funding that the McGowan Government has put into mental healthcare, with more than $1.9 billion in the 2021-22 State Budget allocated to health infrastructure programs.

However, this is a broad budget for the general population and not specific to just the medical sector, or specifically to mental health support.

In response to the worrying Australian statistics the Australian Government, in association with the Australian Medical Association, Everymind, and the Black Dog Institute, assisted in building Every Doctor, Every Setting: A National Framework.

This framework has been implemented, deployed and adopted across the country.

Other awareness programs and support networks like #Socks4Docs and Drs4Drs have been established to try to curb the high figures in the industry, along with organisations like Doctors’ Health Advisory Service.

While these programs are a step in the right direction, Australian Student Medical Association president Sophie Keen said she was still concerned about the future for medical students.