400418 Health Advancement: Mental Health Assessment Answer

Topic: Mental health of doctors in world

Answer:

Literature Review

Mental health of doctors has been shown to suffer across the globe due to the nature of their work. The poor mental health of the doctors is depicted by increased cases of burnout, stress, depression, and suicidal thoughts among health professionals. In particular, various reasons have been identified for the vulnerability of Doctors to mental morbidity, which are busy schedules, multiple role compulsions, emotional taxing, etc. The stress at the workplace can impact the mental well-being of the health professionals by limiting their proficiency and having a negative influence on their overall quality of life. One of the studies conducted in Nigeria found that there was a prominent absence of workplace stress management strategies in a healthcare setting. It was revealed that the doctors frequently remark a failure to show interest by the management about their mental state. Study also identified certain important factors which assisted in reducing workplace stress were need to promote and morally reward the workers and also give them the opportunities for continuing their education (Koinis, et al., 2015).

Another study was conducted to understand the relation between empathy levels and burnout of health professionals working in emergency departments. The study revealed a strong link between the empathy and burnout of health professionals of ER. Therefore, the study concluded that decreasing professional burnout may help keep health professionals' levels of empathy high, which would subsequently ensure an improved quality of care (Yuguero, et al., 2017). Apart from the Emergency department, other department which has a taxing effect on healthcare professional’s health is the pediatric department. A study was conducted to investigate the effect of frequent exposure to pediatric medical trauma on interdisciplinary teams in a pediatric medical facility and the associations between mental distress, resilience and coping abilities. The study indicated that pediatric health trauma can negatively influence a doctor’s health, especially those professionals who are under the age of 25 years as they are unable to utilize positive coping skills effectively. The study established a need for creation of useful interventions for doctors working in pediatric healthcare facilities as per its findings (McGarry, et al., 2013).

It is further observed in practice as well as in literature that doctors don’t admit or report that they have mental health issues in spite of its high prevalence. In addition, the health professionals are not promptly given mental health assessment by their coworkers because of the fear of labeling and stigma. An experiment was conducted in the UK to examine the attitudes of doctors in revealing their mental illness and the barriers and enablers to gaining assistance. An inconsistency was found between what doctors think they might do and what they really did when they suffered from mental health issues. Trainees and doctors at young age were most reluctant to admit or reveal the illness. Doctors revealed certain obstacles to disclosure such as fear of being labelled, confidentiality issues and a lack of understanding the care support structure. It is essential to remove these barriers while planning for interventions of mental health professionals in future (Cohen, Winstanley, & Greene, 2016). The findings of this study is confirmed by another study which revealed that the obstacles to gaining support by doctors suffering from mental health problems are confidentiality, judgement and effect on career. In addition, the study also found that the requirements mentally suffering doctor reflect the requirements of patients in general, that is compassionate and non-judgmental attitude from coworkers. The mentally unwell patients as well as doctors want to overcome the issues of confidentiality and stigma (Brooks, Gerada, & Chalder, 2017).

Literature has also identified another factor which negatively influences the mental well-being of health professionals which is receiving complains. One study conducted in Australia established an association between complains and its adverse impact on doctor’s mental health. the study suggested that the governing bodies of Australia must officially recognize the substantial influence complaints process can have on professionals. They should further make efforts to improve the complaint procedure to lower the negative effects. Doctors' health advisory services as well as the members of the profession should support and encourage the other professionals and build culture that induces health and wellbeing of the coworkers (Haysom, 2016). In spite of encouraging colleagues to support the professionals experiencing mental health professionals, it is essential to understand that supporting colleagues with depression and suicidal ideation is more difficult than supporting those who are not from this profession. It is found that the existing support structure of reporting and supporting the doctors experiencing mental health issues is not effective and can make support seeking and accepting more difficult. Accessibility of efficient psychiatric assistance privately and frequently is hard unless it is expected, enabled and resistant to initial refusal. Suicide of the doctors suffering from mental health professionals is linked with unhelpful generalizations on the value of psychiatric therapy among coworkers that makes others less liable to pursue support or consider that the caregiver will care (Nunn, 2017). 

It is observed that doctors start facing mental health issues during their studying period only. A study was conducted in Brazil to give a detailed insight of mental health issues among medical students by recording their prevalence and links with co-factors. The mental health issues that were most prevalent among the students were depression, common mental disorders, burnout, stress, low quality of sleep, increased daytime sleepiness and anxiety. Co-factors that were related to the mental health issues were absence of motivation, emotional assistance, and educational overload. The study also suggested that evidence-based therapies and psychosocial assistance are required to encourage mental health among the medical students of Brazil (Pacheco, et al., 2017).

A study was conducted in Hungary to find the gender-specific indicators of mental health and burnout particularly among female doctors. Female health professionals in Hungary have demonstrated worse signs of physical and mental health as compared to women from other professions especially in terms of depression, suicidal thoughts, and sleep disorders during two interval points that is 2003 and 2013. The study also reported that increased workload had an evident adverse influence on sleep and the personal achievement aspect of burnout (Gy?rffy, Dweik, & Girasek, 2016).  Not only in female health professionals, is the prevalence of depression and burnout high among doctors in Hungary. One study was conducted to assess the mediating role of coping mechanisms for prevention of depression and burnout among healthcare professionals. The study revealed the prevalence of severe depression and lack of personal accomplishment among the doctors. The symptoms of burnout and depression was predicted by workplace both directly and indirectly through the facilitation of coping mechanisms. One of the useful coping strategies found in the study was cognitive restructuring, which highlights on the accurate evaluation of difficult situations. This strategy lowered the chances of occurrence of burnout and depression symptoms. Therefore, this study verified the significance of formulation of cognitive interventions and accentuated the importance of these strategies in preventing depression and burnout among doctors (Mészáros, Cserháti, Oláh, Forintos, & Adám, 2013).

After reviewing the literature of the mental health of healthcare professionals, it can be concluded that various aspects needs to be conducted to develop interventions so that their health can be promoted. A range of factors work at national, organizational and individual level such as lack of support from management and coworkers, excessive workload, refusal to admit, etc. which has contributed in high prevalence of mental health issues among the doctors. It is essential to identify these factors at different levels and intervention should be planned.

References

Brooks, Gerada, & Chalder. (2017). The specific needs of doctors with mental health problems: qualitative analysis of doctor-patients' experiences with the Practitioner Health Programme. J Ment Health., 26(2), 161-66.

Cohen, Winstanley, & Greene. (2016). Understanding doctors' attitudes towards self-disclosure of mental ill health. Occup Med (Lond)., 66(5), 383-9.

Gy?rffy, Dweik, & Girasek. (2016). Workload, mental health and burnout indicators among female physicians. Hum Resour Health.

Haysom. (2016). The impact of complaints on doctors. Aust Fam Physician, 45(4), 242-4.

Koinis, A., Giannou, V., Drantaki, V., Angelaina, S., Stratou, E., & Saridi, M. (2015). The Impact of Healthcare Workers Job Environment on Their Mental-emotional Health. Coping Strategies: The Case of a Local General Hospital. Health Psychol Res., 13(1).

McGarry, Girdler, McDonald, Valentine, Lee, Blair, . . . Elliott. (2013). Paediatric health-care professionals: relationships between psychological distress, resilience and coping skills. J Paediatr Child Health, 49(9), 725-32.

Mészáros, Cserháti, Oláh, Forintos, P., & Adám. (2013). Coping with work-related stress in health care professionals -- strategies for the prevention of burnout and depression. Orv Hetil, 154(12), 449-54.

Nunn. (2017). Mental health of health professionals. J Paediatr Child Health, 53(8), 735-36.

Pacheco, Giacomin, Tam, Ribeiro, Arab, Bezerra, & Pinasco. (2017). Mental health problems among medical students in Brazil: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Rev Bras Psiquiatr., 39(4), 369-78.

Yuguero, Forné, Esquerda, Pifarré, Abadías, & Viñas. (2017). Empathy and burnout of emergency professionals of a health region: A cross-sectional study. Medicine (Baltimore), 96(37).