Mental Health in Medicine

In a field where everyone is dedicated to caring for others, people often forget to care for themselves. With the overflowing responsibilities of physicians and med students, the time to gather oneself is rare. As doctors and students perform in some of the most stressful environments that carry a strong stigma against mental health, accepting support is hard to do. This all contributes to the growing mental illnesses in medical professionals.

One of the biggest causes of mental illnesses in healthcare is the workload. With excessive caseloads, patients, documenting, and dealing with insurance companies, physicians are overworked. Not to mention the heavy stress and trauma that comes with treating struggling patients and dealing with losses. According to a study made in 2018, 56% of physicians feel overworked, 51% of physicians reported that their workload impacted their mental health, and 55% of physicians reported having less free time outside of work. In fact, physician’s suicide rate is 1.4-2.3 times higher than the general population. This shows how the massive stress compiled in a physician's workload contributes to a deteriorating mental health. When working in critical cases and handling multiple aspects of a patient’s care, it is hard to think of oneself.

With the high number of cases and threats to a physician’s mental health, why aren’t more physicians reaching out for help? This is because of the taboo that surrounds mental health in the medical field. According to the 2018 study, 53% of physicians feel that mental health is a taboo topic and out of 51% of physicians who reported their workload impacted their mental health, only 17% sought help and ⅔ said they wouldn’t even consider seeking help. It may seem ironic that the field that works on improving the wellbeing of others undermines mental health so much, but this is mostly due to the professional drawbacks of physicians actually reaching out. According to the American Journal of Psychiatry, about 35% of physicians don’t seek health care for themselves and 50% of female physicians don’t seek treatments for mental illnesses. This shows how mental illnesses are often viewed as a sign of incompetency as they discriminate in hospital credentialing and create consequences in personal and liability insurance. The largest contributor to this taboo, however, is how medical illnesses can negatively impact the chances of obtaining medical licenses. Professional dangers occur with many licensing processes requiring an applicant’s mental illness history, past studies saying that medical licensing board executive directors took mental health into account when imposing sanctions, the ability for licensing bodies to restrict a physician’s practice based on mental health, and sometimes requiring physicians to provide testimonies, medical records, or documentation to prove their ability to practice medicine. Therefore, the high concerns of physicians in deciding to be open about their illnesses and seeking help must be taken into account and further contribute to the stigma in healthcare.

However, there is always room for improvement. For example, the Indiana University School of Medicine expanded their availability for students to care for their mental health by providing a mental health team made of 6 therapists and 2 administrative staff. This service also does not go on a trainee’s academic record, rather it is stored in a separate medical record, thereby increasing incentive and security for the students. This has doubled the student participation in utilizing mental health services. By providing more of these services in professional settings and allowing systems and environments in which physicians and medical students can be comfortable in reaching out without having to greatly fear the impact on their jobs, we could improve the mindset of the medical field and help those who are dedicated to helping us.

Works Cited:

Carpenter, Gerry. “Physician Workload Survey 2018 - Locumstory.com.” Locumstory.com, Aug. 2018, locumstory.com/spotlight/physician-workload-survey-2018/.

Heller, Bill. “We Must Address the Mental Health Crisis among Medical Professionals.” Medpagetoday.com, MedpageToday, 24 Feb. 2020, www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/generalprofessionalissues/85043.

“Suffering in Silence: Mental Health Stigma and Physicians’ Licensing Fears.” American Journal of Psychiatry Residents’ Journal, 2018, psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2018.131101.

“‘Taking Care of Your Mental Health Is Valued Here.’ How the Country’s Largest Medical School Transformed Its Mental Health Services to Better Serve Students.” Blogs, 16 Aug. 2022, medicine.iu.edu/blogs/spirit-of-medicine/mental-health-services.