AUSTRALIA’S LEADING INDEPENDENT MEDICAL PUBLICATION I www.australiandoctor.com.au
THE SURVIVOR
Dr Geoffrey
Toogood
‘It wasn’t the
stroke I needed
to recover from,
it was the severe
depression.’
THE FIGHTER
Dr Kate Johnson
‘I want to open
up the dialogue
to people who
are suffering in
silence.’
THE BEREAVED
Susan Bryant
‘Since I sent my
email, many
doctors have told
me how mental
illness has affected
them.’
THE GP
Dr Janette Randall
‘I have treated
other colleagues
over the years who
have struggled
to accept their
limitations.’
A
WALL of silence has
surrounded the issue of
doctors’ mental health and
the tragic end result of its
neglect, suicide, for too long.
How many doctors take their own lives
every year is unknown. But in the past six
months, a number of highly publicised
cases have put the issue firmly in the
national spotlight.
In January, it emerged that 29-year-old
Dr Chloe Abbott had taken her own life.
She was the third known junior doctor in
NSW to do so in as many months, which
her family says was the result of “brutal”
working conditions.
In response, the state’s health minister
launched an investigation to find out
why so many young doctors were being
pushed to the edge of despair.
Then Brisbane gastroenterologist Dr
Andrew Bryant took his own life.
He was a highly regarded physician,
with no history of depression, but who,
according to his wife, had started worrying
about practice finances and his heavy
workload. His sudden death made it clear
• Lifeline on 13 11 14: For support
and information about suicide preven-
Print Post Approved PP100007880
2 JUNE 2017
Doctors
are
human too
Let’s end the
silence – four
people share
their stories
See page 2
• It’s time to tackle the issue of doctors’ mental
health, which is so poor that suicide rates
within the profession far outstrip those of
the general population
• Doctors and their families are now speaking
out and demanding change so no one has
to suffer in silence anymore
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
that young doctors weren’t the only ones
being affected.
The profession has responded to
these latest deaths in a way not seen
before — doctors and their families are
openly discussing their own experiences
of mental illness’ insidious grasp on
medicine.
Finally, it seems, the wall of silence is
starting to crumble.
This edition of Australian Doctor
honours those who are trying to end the
myth that doctors’ lives can’t be messy
or difficult — or human — a reality that
for too long has been dismissed as an
unacceptable weakness.
The dominant themes of their stories will
surprise no one who works in healthcare.
Blame is rightly levelled at the ‘culture
of medicine’, the way it creates a harsh,
unsympathetic environment where doctors
are expected to cope with whatever’s
thrown at them, with little support from
peers and mentors.
It’s a caring profession that struggles
to care for its own. But what has made
medicine this way is as much political as
personal.
The places doctors train and work
are by their very nature stressful.
But they become toxic when they’re
underresourced and mixed with fears over
the consequences of errors and mistakes.
Doctors work long, inflexible hours in
poorly staffed organisations where patients
are increasingly sicker and requiring ever
more complex care.
When all this wears them down to
the point of illness, they feel they can’t
take time off as there’s no one to cover
for them. To protect their overloaded
colleagues and vulnerable patients they
soldier on.
In such an environment, how can
we expect doctors to help and support
each other, when they can’t even help
themselves?
Added to this, are the mandatory
• Suicide Callback Service: 1300 659 467: A 24-hour 7-day a week
service that provides free counselling for anyone affected by suicide.
reporting laws. When lives start to unravel,
doctors’ fear of being reported to AHPRA,
and the loss of their professional career,
results in an unwillingness to seek help.
So the silence is encouraged.
Surely, it is time for governments
and healthcare organisations to step-
up and take some responsibility for the
mental welfare of the country’s medical
workforce?
Action is needed at the top to increase
staffing levels, reduce excessive working
hours, boost resources, embrace flexible
working and develop a medical workplace
culture that is no longer toxic, but
supportive.
Action is also needed to reform the
mandatory reporting laws.
As shown in the following pages,
doctors and their families are speaking
out, they’re demanding change.
This week’s Australian Doctor is
dedicated to all those who have been
brave enough to do so. We hope their
courage will inspire others to seek help,
rather than suffer in silence.
Jo Hartley
• Doctors Health Advisory Service: A helpline for calls relating to stress, mental illness,
drug and alcohol problems, or personal and fi nancial diffi culties. State numbers on page 4.