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Peer support for troubled doctors
30 May 2008
AMA Victoria’s Peer Support Service is now available to provide first-line counselling by doctors for doctors on a range of issues including workload concerns, stress and burnout, trauma, personal issues and wellbeing.
Volunteer telephone counsellors provide a listening ear to their colleagues and can assist callers by linking them to ongoing support. The anonymous and confidential service is available for the cost of a local call from 8am until 11pm every day of the year.
AMA Victoria Vice President Dr Bob Conyers every doctor has a responsibility to make sure that any medical colleagues or friends in distress are encouraged to call the service as a first step in resolving their concerns.
“Help is only as far away as their telephone,” he says. “It makes sense to turn to people who are familiar with the situations doctors face. They understand the culture of the medical profession and the various pressures and concerns.
“It would be great if we worked in an environment where we didn’t need to operate the Peer Support Service, but unfortunately that isn’t the case and there is a demand for such services.”
AMA Victoria’s Peer Support Service is designed to support medical practitioners before the problem gets to crisis-point. It focuses on providing first line counselling to doctors on issues relating to their job and, where appropriate, refers doctors for suitable ongoing assistance.
“Medical practice can be tough. Workloads are intense and can be emotionally draining, we’re often contending with deficiencies in resources and medical workforce shortages, and the threat of medicolegal action is ever-present,” Dr Conyers says.
“When people are under considerable stress it may only take something minor to push them over the edge.”
Dr Conyers said doctors need to look after their own wellbeing and often, this begins with taking their own advice.
“As doctors, we’re taught early on that the patients’ health comes before self-interest. But we also have to consider our own health in order to become, and remain, good doctors.”
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