Papers & Articles
Click below to read some of the impactful articles from supporters of Doctors in Distress
“Preventing doctors from dying by suicide”
Constructing cross-organisational collaboration by Dr Ananta Dave
“Writing gave me back joy” How writing for self-expression can foster well-being in the healthcare profession
We interview our RLF Fellow Lisa Evans who runs our workshops with Doctors in Distress.
A silent emergency: The rise in suicides among UK doctors
by Amandas Ong
“Faced with high-pressure workloads, bullying and poor support structures, medics are at least twice as likely to die by suicide than the general population.”
‘This is just not safe for anyone’: the NHS doctors at breaking point – The New Statesman
by Bilal Aly
“Medics explain how relentless scrutiny and gruelling hours are driving them to leave the profession.”
Doctors in Distress Trustee, Professor Subodh and Ambassador, Sarinda Wijetunge both contributed to this important article published in The New Statesman on doctor burnout in the NHS.
‘Help for the Helpers’ – HCPJ
by Susannah Basile
“Jagdip Sidhu, a consultant cardiologist who showed no obvious signs of mental distress, took his own life in 2018. Jagdip’s brother, Amandip, later discovered that Jagdip had been burnt out and overworked. He also learned that Jagdip had not felt able to talk about the pressures at work for fear of recrimination.”
This article first appeared in the July 2022 issue of Healthcare Counselling and Psychotherapy Journal, published by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. ©BACP 2022.
‘The Wounded Healer: Conference Addresses Doctor Burnout’ – Medscape
by Rachel Pugh
“As the curtain rises, the senior partner of a busy GP practice struggles with the workload, his next in command is not coping with the pressures of COVID, whilst the manager is on the edge of a breakdown.”
‘No healthcare without self-care’ – MDDUS
by Susannah Basile
“BEING unwell does not sit easily with doctors. Having been told since antiquity to “heal thyself”, the belief that they are somehow impervious to illness – and that asking for help may be perceived as weakness – runs deep.”
‘There is no healthcare without selfcare’ – The House, Parliament’s Magazine (The NHS Edition)
by Susannah Basile
“Doctors in Distress is calling for the government to provide new funding for all NHS staff to have access to at least an hour per month of independent and unprescribed reflection and restorative support in confidential spaces as part of their working contract.”
In January 2022, we ran a campaign where we had an article published in The House, Parliament’s Magazine calling on the government to provide new funding to give NHS workers access to at least an hour per month of protected reflection time to support their mental health.
‘There is no healthcare without selfcare: we need contractual change to help support the mental wellbeing of healthcare workers’ – Public Sector Focus Magazine
by Susannah Basile
“We all know it is imperative to care for our mental health so why should that be any different for our healthcare workers? During this pandemic we have clapped for carers and branded them heroes. But, as the mental toll of the pandemic continues to impact our healthcare workers, Susannah Basile, Head of Programmes and Public Affairs at Doctors in Distress asks how we can meaningfully support those who have sacrificed so much to care for us.”
‘In my 30 years as a GP, the profession has been horribly eroded’ – Guardian Long Read
by Dame Clare Gerada
“As I finished the final house calls of my long career in general practice, it struck me how detached I am from my patients now – and that it was not always like this. Where did we go wrong, and what can we do to fix it?”
‘It’s like juggling fire daily’: Well-being, workload and Burnout in the British NHS – A survey of 721 Physicians
by Catherine Dominic, Dipesh P Gopal & Amandip Sidhu
“The study aimed to understand the causes of work-related burnout, identify what supportive resources physicians utilise, and to propose solutions.”
Our Founder, Amandip Sidhu has contributed to an article presenting results of a study of 721 physicians on well-being, workload and burnout in the NHS.
‘Closing The Gender Wellbeing Gap In Medicine’ – The BMJ
by Dame Clare Gerada
“Women from all walks of life and age groups have been disproportionately affected by the covid pandemic—especially regarding financial security, mental health, and additional care responsibilities.”
Our Chair Dame Clare Gerada has written a piece for the BMJ titled, “Closing the gender wellbeing gap in medicine”. In which she discusses the different strains and pressures put on female medics during the COVID19 pandemic.
‘Suicide & The Myth Of Sisyphus’ – The BMJ
by Dame Clare Gerada
“Suicide is a difficult subject to talk about, but we must not shun it or hide it away in secrecy.”
Our Chair, Dame Clare Gerada has had an article published in the BMJ on the difficult subject of suicide among medical professionals. She shares her own experiences as a GP and her charitable work aiming to alleviate mental health problems and ultimately suicide within the medical profession.
‘Learning From Doctors With Long Covid’ – The BMJ
by Sue Warren and Sarah Burns
“How can we learn from doctors with Long COVID? GP’s Sue Warren and Sarah Burns, helped to launch our first Long COVID support groups, alongside our Chair Dame Clare Gerada. Their findings are now recorded in the BMJ as a piece of academic research.
“Long covid has emerged as a serious, yet poorly understood, sequelae of acute covid-19 infection. We do not yet know why some people develop long covid, while others do not, but it appears that rates of long covid are more prevalent in healthcare professionals due to increased exposure to covid-19.”
Black Medics Forum Achievements
by Bertie Aspinall
Doctors in Distress with the Black Medics Forum would welcome your ideas about how the group can best support black doctors going forward, and how it could be made easier for members to actively participate. We are aware that these are demanding times for doctors and that everyone is dealing with capacity, timings, exams, additional work demands.
Continue reading below: