Physicians’ mental health is under the microscope perhaps more than any time in modern history.
A 2020 survey by The Physicians Foundation found that 58% of physicians experienced feelings of burnout during the pandemic, but only 13% reported seeking medical attention for a mental health problem as a result of COVID-19’s impact on their practice or employment.
In response to that unsettling statistic, the foundation has released a simple tool to help physicians cope with crisis.
Part of the foundation’s Vital Signs initiative to address physician suicide, A Personal Crisis Management Plan For Physicians is a short series of questions to support physicians and their colleagues in “accessing the coping strategies you may need to navigate a moment of crisis.”
Physicians can use the tool to ask themselves:
- What are my warning signs (thoughts, images, moods, situations, behaviors) that a crisis is developing?
- What are my healthy internal coping strategies? Name a few things I can do to take my mind off my problems without contacting another person (relaxation techniques, physical activity).
- Who are a few people/what are the social settings that can provide me with a distraction?
- Which people can I ask for help?
- Who are the professionals or agencies I can contact during a crisis?
The tool was inspired by the work of a trio of physicians who created their own Personal Crisis Management Plan for Residents. Fifty-nine percent of residents surveyed on that crisis plan said it would help them manage a crisis, and 32% said they had used their personal plan in the past three months.
The Physicians Foundation’s version comes on the heels of its 2020 Survey of America’s Physicians: COVID-19’s Impact on Physician Wellbeing. Among its COVID-19-focused queries, the survey found that nearly one in four physicians knows a physician who has committed or considered suicide.
“We continuously hear from the loved ones of physicians who died by suicide that it could have been avoided,” Robert Seligson, CEO of The Physicians Foundation, said in a release announcing the crisis management plan. “We hope this tool gets us one step closer in breaking the culture of silence around physician mental health issues – helping physicians not be in fear of being judged or losing their right to practice.”
Last Updated On
May 26, 2021
Originally Published On
May 25, 2021