Editor's note: Mental Health Awareness Month is recognized in May each year. Columns throughout the month are highlighting important mental health topics through a local partnership with Anne Marie Project, Capital Region Medical Center, Compass Health Network, St. Mary's Hospital and United Way of Central Missouri.
As Mental Health Awareness Month is nearing its end, this is an important time to not only recognize and de-stigmatize the mental health issues faced by the general community, but to also shine a light on the similar illnesses clinicians and caregivers can fall victim to.
What better time than now, given the stress frontline health care professionals are currently facing from COVID-19, to have a better appreciation for the work environment we are exposed to each and every day, to understand the potential impairments we can suffer from, and to layout a potential road map for improvement.
Over half of the physicians in the United States experience symptoms of burnout, a rate nearly double that of workers in other professions, after controlling for hours worked, age, sex and other factors. Burnout is broadly defined as feeling emotionally exhausted, becoming cynical or detached from others' suffering and no longer feeling a sense of accomplishment in one's work.
Worse yet, for the health care professional, prolonged distress and burnout can lead to broken relationships, depression, anxiety, substance use and suicide.
Physician burnout is just one way of potentially becoming impaired. Impairment interferes with the ability of a physician to carry out patient care responsibilities safely and effectively, and can also be caused by substance use disorders, mental illness or a decline in cognitive or motor skills due to age or disease.
Physicians and health care professionals are also not immune to depression. In the United States, an estimated 300 to 400 doctors commit suicide each year, at an approximate rate of 28 to 40 per 100,000, or more than double that of the general population. With a significant shortage of physicians expected in the future, society cannot afford to have any physician become impaired, or worse yet, end their life.
So how do we help a physician and health professional workforce that is suffering and unhappy?
The Missouri Physician and Health Professional Wellness Program, sponsored by the Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians (MAOPS) and Capital Region Medical Center, was created in 1987 by James Wieberg, LPC, in response to the request of the Osteopathic Association to provide well-being and interventional services to physicians and their families. That mission has since expanded to include all allied health professionals licensed by the Board of Healing Arts.
The program's primary focus is on prevention, early identification, intervention, treatment and rehabilitation of health care professionals who may be affected by substance use, mental health issues or disruptive behavior, burnout, as well as aging. We are happy to report that providing strict confidentiality and relentless advocacy has led to extremely high success rates.
It is important for health care providers to engage in self-care for their own mental health needs as they are caring for everyone else. Recognizing mental health is as important as physical health as we endure the continued stress and emotional toll during the COVID-19 crisis.
Health care workers will remain essential to helping overcome the COVID-19 pandemic. So as the community comes together to thank our local frontline providers for their service, and as we eventually reach post COVID-19 status, we must remember to support the mental wellness of the health care professionals that care for our community.
Dr. Russ Carpenter is a psychiatrist with the Center for Mental Wellness Clinic at Capital Region Medical Center.