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Preference: Administration and Health Services

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What would make you see a doctor?

There has recently been a more dedicated conversation to help doctors find better ways of improving their whole-body health.

Instead of relying on self-diagnosis and ‘corridor consultations’, doctors are being urged to find a GP and proactively maintain their own mental and physical health.

Improving doctors’ health is not a new topic; dedicated doctors have been working on this issue for decades.

According to Dr Margaret Kay, medical director Queensland Doctors’ Health Service, there have been conferences in Australasia around the topic since 1999.

However recently, more people have been speaking out over the importance of doctors’ health.

“We’re seeing is quite a significant voice from the council of doctors in training and doctors at the junior doctor/registrar level,” Dr Kay noted.

Significantly, there have been some senior medical voices speaking out.

It is this voice of experience that is vital for changing the culture, particularly for junior doctors.

Related: Service aims to remove the stigma of doctors seeking medical help

According to Dr Kay, when a junior doctor or registrar is sick, the senior doctors should give them permission to take care of themselves and see a doctor.

“Your consultant should be putting his or her hand on your shoulder and saying ‘I really get how you feel and I think you need to go home to bed. I’m not going to penalise you for being sick’,” she explained.

She said ‘eye-rolling’ when someone isn’t feeling well needs to stop.

“We need to be aware of it and have a conversation with each other. Senior people need to support each other in enabling that.”

Dr Kay said often doctors who call up the Queensland Doctors’ Health Programme phone line are looking for permission to see a doctor.

According to one of Dr Kay’s studies, Developing a framework for understanding doctors’ health access, published in the Australian Journal of Primary Health in 2011, finding the right time to see a GP is one of the barriers for doctors.

One respondent said: “You tend to trivialise your complaints and it might be just that once that you’re too busy to go and you miss the boat completely and you get yourself into serious trouble.”

Related: The importance of taking care of our own

However Dr Kay said the ideal time to see a GP is not for something serious, but for a check-up or immunisations, so there is an opportunity to build a rapport with the GP and talk about further health issues and preventions.

“There are so many conversations that a GP can enter into with a doctor once they’ve come in for a simple consultation.”

It’s also the training for doctors to learn the best way to treat other doctors that’s important. Websites such as Drs4drs.com.au, a newly launched website hosted on doctorportal, aims to provide a resource for doctors to maintain their own health and access to training programs for GPs wanting to help treat other doctors.

“GPs particularly be trained up, and should be engaged with their primary health network to let them know it’s the type of training they’re interested in,” Dr Kay advised.

To find more doctors’ health resources or be connected with your state advisory service, visit Drs4drs.com.au

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Service aims to remove the stigma of doctors seeking medical help

Doctors are used to being the carers in our communities, however many find it difficult to seek professional health advice for themselves.

Historically, a professional culture has encouraged longer working hours and high levels of a doctor’s dedication, often to the detriment of their health.

However there is a new national website with dedicated resources specifically aimed at the medical profession.

Drs4drs.com.au launched recently to provide a vital resource for all doctors to help maintain their own health.

Hosted on doctorportal, it provides a springboard for finding health-related triage, advice, referral services and other online health resources.

Related: The importance of taking care of our own

In 2014, the Medical Board of Australia launched a significant boost in resources to doctors’ health, partnering with the Australian Medical Association to develop a national health program.

As a result, the AMA established a subsidiary company, Doctors’ Health Services (DrHS) to administer health programs at arm’s length from regulatory authorities like the MBA and AHPRA.

According to chair of the DrsH board, Dr Janette Randall, doctors’ health has been an ongoing cultural issue.

“As a profession we are self-reliant and tend to see illness as a weakness or failing. Taking time off isn’t an option when it means letting your patients and colleagues down, and young doctors in particular worry about the impact on their future careers if they are seen as not coping or not being tough enough.”

Related: What would make you see a doctor?

Although doctors generally have a higher level of health than the general community, they’re not as good at seeking help, often preferring to speak to a colleague or self-manage conditions rather than following a formal route of medical investigation.

According to Dr Randall: “Encouraging all doctors to have their own GP is an essential element of good self-care, and we need to change the culture so that help seeking is a normal and desirable thing for doctors to do.”

The mental health of doctors is of particular concern. According to the Beyond Blue National Mental Health Survey of Doctors and Medical Students, doctor have higher rates of psychological distress and suicide attempts compared to the Australian population.

Women and younger doctors are of particular concern: the survey found female doctors had higher rates of current psychological distress, higher likelihood of minor psychiatric disorders and current diagnoses of specific mental health disorders. They were also more likely to have had suicidal thoughts. Younger doctors are more vulnerable to poor mental health and levels of stress with higher rates of burnout compared to older doctors.

Doctors with a mental illness often don’t seek help due to fear that they won’t be seen as competent.

Drs4drs.com.au aims to reduce this stigma and provide doctors with the tools and resources to improve both their mental and physical health.

“While doctors’ health services provide an important source of support and advice for doctors in crisis, including those experiencing mental health and substance use issues, what we really want is for doctors health services to be real focus for everyone taking care of their health,” Dr Randall explained.

As a starting point, doctors can be linked straight through to their state based health advisory services. In addition to providing confidential health-related triage and advice, these advisory services provide follow up services and support for doctors and medical students who need help returning to work, training for doctors treating other doctors and support groups for doctors with significant health problems.

The drs4drs website also a range of resources including wellbeing guides for junior doctors, mental health resources and health guides for doctors in certain fields like rural health and general practice.

The aim is to encourage a profession wide response that is compassionate and supportive of medical colleagues experiencing any kind of health challenge.

For more information, visit drs4drs.com.au

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Specialist homelessness services 2015–16: Australian Capital Territory fact sheet

Individual state and territory fact sheets summarise information on Specialist homelessness services delivered in 2015–16 and provide a contextual basis to aid interpretation of the national data. Each fact sheet highlights jurisdictional-specific information about the clients of specialist homelessness agencies who were assisted in 2015–16, the services requested, the support received, and outcomes achieved. Fact sheets also present service use rates by priority groups compared with national data. To some extent, differences between states and territories in the numbers and types of homelessness services can reflect differences in service delivery models and their associated responses.These state and territory fact sheet complement jurisdictional infographics (On any given day) and supplementary data tables available through the .

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Specialist homelessness services 2015–16: Northern Territory fact sheet

Individual state and territory fact sheets summarise information on Specialist homelessness services delivered in 2015–16 and provide a contextual basis to aid interpretation of the national data. Each fact sheet highlights jurisdictional-specific information about the clients of specialist homelessness agencies who were assisted in 2015–16, the services requested, the support received, and outcomes achieved. Fact sheets also present service use rates by priority groups compared with national data. To some extent, differences between states and territories in the numbers and types of homelessness services can reflect differences in service delivery models and their associated responses.These state and territory fact sheet complement jurisdictional infographics (On any given day) and supplementary data tables available through the Specialist homelessness services report 2015–16 (web report).

Specialist homelessness services 2015–16: Queensland fact sheet

Individual state and territory fact sheets summarise information on Specialist homelessness services delivered in 2015–16 and provide a contextual basis to aid interpretation of the national data. Each fact sheet highlights jurisdictional-specific information about the clients of specialist homelessness agencies who were assisted in 2015–16, the services requested, the support received, and outcomes achieved. Fact sheets also present service use rates by priority groups compared with national data. To some extent, differences between states and territories in the numbers and types of homelessness services can reflect differences in service delivery models and their associated responses.These state and territory fact sheet complement jurisdictional infographics (On any given day) and supplementary data tables available through the Specialist homelessness services report 2015–16 (web report).

Specialist homelessness services 2015–16: South Australia fact sheet

Individual state and territory fact sheets summarise information on Specialist homelessness services delivered in 2015–16 and provide a contextual basis to aid interpretation of the national data. Each fact sheet highlights jurisdictional-specific information about the clients of specialist homelessness agencies who were assisted in 2015–16, the services requested, the support received, and outcomes achieved. Fact sheets also present service use rates by priority groups compared with national data. To some extent, differences between states and territories in the numbers and types of homelessness services can reflect differences in service delivery models and their associated responses.These state and territory fact sheet complement jurisdictional infographics (On any given day) and supplementary data tables available through the Specialist homelessness services report 2015–16 (web report).

Specialist homelessness services 2015–16: Victoria fact sheet

Individual state and territory fact sheets summarise information on Specialist homelessness services delivered in 2015–16 and provide a contextual basis to aid interpretation of the national data. Each fact sheet highlights jurisdictional-specific information about the clients of specialist homelessness agencies who were assisted in 2015–16, the services requested, the support received, and outcomes achieved. Fact sheets also present service use rates by priority groups compared with national data. To some extent, differences between states and territories in the numbers and types of homelessness services can reflect differences in service delivery models and their associated responses.These state and territory fact sheet complement jurisdictional infographics (On any given day) and supplementary data tables available through the Specialist homelessness services report 2015–16 (web report).

Specialist homelessness services 2015–16: Tasmania fact sheet

Individual state and territory fact sheets summarise information on Specialist homelessness services delivered in 2015–16 and provide a contextual basis to aid interpretation of the national data. Each fact sheet highlights jurisdictional-specific information about the clients of specialist homelessness agencies who were assisted in 2015–16, the services requested, the support received, and outcomes achieved. Fact sheets also present service use rates by priority groups compared with national data. To some extent, differences between states and territories in the numbers and types of homelessness services can reflect differences in service delivery models and their associated responses.These state and territory fact sheet complement jurisdictional infographics (On any given day) and supplementary data tables available through the Specialist homelessness services report 2015–16 (web report).