HEALTH AND WELLNESS FOR DOCTORS MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF JAMAICA

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HEALTH AND WELLNESS FOR DOCTORSMEDICAL
ASSOCIATION OF JAMAICA

• Blossom Anglin-Brown DM(MED).MPH.FACG

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HELPING THE WOUNDED HEALER
coming together is a beginning Staying together
is progress Working together is success Henry
Ford
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ISSUES RELATED TO DOCTORS HEALTH AND WELL BEING

• Doctors avoid seeking formal health care for
  themselves
• Continue to work when unwell and self-treat
• Have great difficulty in adopting the patient
  role and in treating other doctors

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ISSUES RELATED TO DOCTORS HEALTH

• Doctors
• Are more likely to receive inferior health care
  when ill
• Have major concerns about confidentiality
• Experience high rates of depression, suicide and
  substance abuse
• Only a minority of doctors have a personal G.P.

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WELLNESS

• State of well-being
• Integration of the physical mental and spiritual
  selves of individuals into a harmoniously
  functioning whole

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WHY ARE PHYSICIANS AT RISK

• Long working hours
• complexity of problems
• Intense application of ones skills at the cost
  of self care

• Relentless perfectionism
• ADD
• Genetic predisposition
• Tendency to self treat
• Denial

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INTERVENTION

• WHENEVER A PHYSICIAN APPEARS IMPAIRED IN THE
  WORKPLACE HIS OR HER ILLNESS IS FAR ADVANCED

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BACKGROUND

• RECOGNITION OF THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPPORTING
  ILL MEMBERS OF THE MEDICAL FRATERNITY
• INITIATED BY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF JAMAICA

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PHYSICIANS RESPONSE

• WILL TYPICALLY
• DENY

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WHAT DO OUR OWN COLLEAGUES SAY
The community of doctors has a special
responsibility to identify, address and provide
the support for those colleagues whose
performance is jeopardized for any reason. The
approach must never be punitive and the strategy
required will have to be creative as the nature
of the problems are as many and varied as are
the causes.
Dr. Margaret Green Past President, MAJ
. All of us must be a part of the solutions if
acceptable outcomes are to be achieved. The task
will not be easy as the roads to recovery are
usually long and often tedious.
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WHAT DO OUR OWN COLLEAGUES SAY
The Medical Association of Jamaica is aware that
in the profession are colleagues whose ability to
work, may be compromised by alcohol or drug
dependency, mental illness, senility, physical
impairment or aberrant behaviour due to stress.
Dr.Barbara Johnson Past Chair Impaired Physician
Any of these are conditions which could interfere
with the safe practice of medicine. It is
important to recognize that such impairment does
not necessarily imply medical malpractice. Our
aim is to intervene before malpractice occurs.
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WHAT DO OUR OWN COLLEAGUES SAY
Recognition of the impaired physician is often
elusive and, even when detected, measures to
address the needs of the physician are often
stymied by a range of personal and professional
barriers.
Dr. Knox Hagley Past President MAJ
It is imperative that the impaired physician
becomes the exemplary patient.
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WHAT DO OUR OWN COLLEAGUES SAY
The Hipocratic Oath states in part to reckon
him who taught me this art, equally dear to me as
my parents, to share my substance with him and
relieve his necessities if required. This
powerful statement made since 425 BC charged us
with looking after each other. It is commendable
that the Medical Association of Jamaica has taken
up the challenge to take care of its own.
Ramon Arscott Past President , Medical Students
Association
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CAUSES OF DISTRESS IN DOCTORS

• Stress
• Burn-out
• Depression
• Chronic Physical illness
• Relationship Issues
• Marriage involving one or two doctors

• Poor financial planning
• Substance Abuse and drug addiction
• Retirement issues
• Chronic mental illness
• Professional and social isolation

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WELLNESS PROGRAMME

• CONCERNED WITH
• Prevention
• Treatment and
• alleviation of dysfunctions caused by any
  impairment of a Physicians health
• Support where needed

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OBJECTIVES OF PROGRAMME

• Identify needs
• Be Prompt
• Be Efficient
• Be Sensitive
• Be Confidential
• Be Compassionate

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SERVICE OFFERED

• Caring intervention
• Confidential discussion
• Referral for assessment and treatment
• Recovery monitoring
• Advocacy

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SHORT TERM GOALS

• Utilize existing resources
• Creative use of existing facilities and personnel
• Establish stop gap programmes to meet current
  demands dealing with physicians health impairment

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LONG TERM GOALS

• To assess the nature, extent, and distribution of
  the problems of impaired physicians
• To determine the resources, facilities, and
  personnel necessary to meet the objectives
  outlined

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COMPONENTS OF PROGRAMME

• Twenty-four hour emergency care and crisis
  intervention
• Facilitation of inpatient care
• Education on wellness and Physicians impairment
• Community consultation services
• Research

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Treatment Approach

• Motivating the doctor in need of help
• Referral where indicated for Pharmacotherapy,
  Psychotherapy, Family and Marital therapy, Peer
  support, Financial Advice, Cognitive Behaviour
  Therapy.

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PROPOSED STRUCTURE
COORDINATORS

• Dr. B. Anglin-Brown
• Dr. D. Aarons
• Dr. B. Salmon-Grandison
• Dr. O. Golding-Beecher

• SOUTH-EAST
• NORTH-EAST
• WESTERN
• SOUTHERN

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METHODS OF REFERRAL

• Self Referral
• Colleagues
• Family and Friends
• Concerned individuals

• Other committees within the Medical Association
  of Jamaica

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INITIATIVES

• EDUCATION
• Seminars throughout the year. Available
  educational material for Physicians
• PROMOTION
• Encourage paradigm shift to
  prevention.Medical students must be targeted
• Coordinators and coopted members.

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RETREAT

• North Coast Hotel
• Goals discussed and documented
• Action Plans agreed on

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WHAT HAS BEEN DONE

• On-going sensitization of colleagues e.g. Medical
  students as part of their clinical Psychiatry
  clerkship, medical council of Jamaica.
• One to one support of colleagues mainly in the
  areas of alcohol abuse, grief counselling, and
  marital discord.

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CONCLUSION

• Service set up by doctors for doctors
• To provide an opportunity for those in need of
  help
• To provide support in a caring confidential and
  meaningful way

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THE FUTURE

• LET US BEGIN TO BE PART OF THE MOVEMENT TO
• To take care of ourselves
• To look out for each other

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