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Front-line doctors face a mental health crisis amid coronavirus. Can medicine overcome the culture of stoicism? - Yahoo News
May 31, 2020 2 mins, 55 secs
Those grim statistics are likely even more dire for the health care workers on the front lines of the crisis, experts say.

While it's too early to truly quantify the effect that treating patients under combat-like conditions will have on doctors in the coming months or years, preliminary research out of China highlights the mental health risk that American health care workers potentially face.

Of more than 1,200 health care workers surveyed in China, roughly half showed symptoms of depression or anxiety, according to a JAMA Network Open article published in March.

The consequences of ignoring doctors' mental health during the pandemic are grave.

"We have to see emotional and mental health support as being as important and vital as we see PPE [personal protective equipment]," said Dr.

Every hospital and medical facility should be asking themselves, "what are we doing to prevent the emotional impact of being a health care provider in this environment?" she said.

The list of stressors for health care workers during COVID-19 is overwhelming even to read.

"Doctors are trained to try not to have their emotions interfere with their judgement," said Donald Parker, a licensed clinical social worker and president of Hackensack Meridian Health Carrier Clinic, New Jersey's largest nonprofit behavioral health system.

But that same culture also puts doctors at risk of not taking care of, or hurting themselves, experts say.

As her health worsened, Shapiro continued to work on starting peer support programs when organizations reached out to her.

The stigma attached to asking for support can lead doctors to suffer in silence or use negative coping mechanisms, like alcohol or drugs to self-medicate, experts say.

If those positive coping strategies fail and a doctor still feels depressed, anxious or can't sleep, it's a sign they may need more formal mental health support.

When asked about the potential for doctors dying by suicide, Meltzer-Brody said, "People like me who run these programs think about it every day and worry about it every day.".

But it could also be the catalyst needed to implement preventative mental health support programs in institutions that aren't investing in them.

In her work, Shapiro has found that doctors feel most comfortable opening up with a physician colleague, rather than with a mental health professional, who might not be able to relate to their exact circumstances as intimately.

Her peer-to-peer programs train doctors to support one another during difficult circumstances.

"We should think of peer support as preventative," Shapiro said.

"Some people, some physicians, some health care providers over the course of doing their work are going to become burnt out, depressed, or will develop PTSD, or become suicidal," she said.

Shapiro is seeing an uptick in requests for her help starting peer-to-peer support programs.

But programs like the ones Meltzer-Brody and Shapiro run are the exception, not the rule.

That’s grossly inadequate to take care of the huge number of health care providers who are facing this," Meltzer-Brody said.

That call needs to be more than "call your employee assistance program," she said, referring to such assistance programs a good start, but far short of the proactive mental health support health care workers need.

Instead, programs like hers should be widespread and available to everyone, which may be a real possibility if newly loosened rules about mental health treatment using telemedicine are extended beyond the pandemic.

"With virtual care there is no reason that it can’t be scaled up," Meltzer-Brody said?

Front-line doctors face a mental health crisis amid coronavirus

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