Meeting tackles taboos, stigmas surrounding physician health issues

by Patrick Sullivan

How important an issue has the health of physicians become in Canada?

Organizers of the Second Canadian Conference on Physician Health had an inkling by mid-October, when they had to close the meeting to new registrants because room capacity had already been surpassed two weeks before the meeting started.

By the time the Oct. 28-29 conference ended, the 250-plus delegates had heard an entertaining debate on whether physicians' and trainees' work hours should be limited, as well as impassioned discussions on pressures induced by medical practice and the resulting problems, such as addiction and failed relationships.

As one physician noted as the meeting in Toronto ended, it was rare to attend a medical conference late on a Saturday afternoon in which the meeting room was still filled to capacity.

The meeting, co-hosted by the CMA, Ontario Medical Association Physician Health Program (OMA PHP) and Canadian Medical Foundation, also received sponsorship from the Canadian Medical Protective Association and through an unrestricted education grant from Pfizer.

The goal was to make all subjects surrounding physician health - including "taboo" topics such as suicide and mental illness - open for discussion and debate. The conference achieved this through plenary sessions and a series of workshops on topics ranging from medicolegal stress to the management of suicide risk.

"One of our goals from the start was to tackle stigma head on," said Dr. Todd Watkins, who represented the CMA on the organizing committee. "We wanted to say that not only is it OK to discuss these issues, but that they should be discussed."

President John Haggie said the topic has been high on the CMA's agenda since it created the world's first Centre for Physician Health and Well-being nine years ago. However, he thinks physician health is even more of a priority today. "If we as a profession don't take responsibility for our collective health, no one will," he said. "But equally important is the fact that our health is inherently linked to the sustainability of the health care system."

Healthier doctors, said Haggie, mean a healthier system.

That message was delivered many times throughout the meeting. OMA President Stewart Kennedy said he intended to make the topic a "central theme" during his one-year term. Healthy doctors "mean better health for patients," he said.

During the conference's opening plenary session, Dr. Brian Goldman said physicians face a difficult task when they try to separate their personal and professional lives. In an on-stage interview with Dr. Mamta Gautam, an Ottawa psychiatrist who deals solely with physician patients, Goldman said MDs are often afraid to seek the work-life balance they need.

"As the old-time doctors would say, 'You know what's wrong with one-in-two call? You miss half of the great cases,'" said Goldman, an emergency physician who hosts White Coat, Black Art on CBC Radio.

Goldman provided the meeting's most searing moment when he shared an email he had received from a listener, a woman who had lost her physician husband to suicide, after running a segment on physician health on White Coat, Black Art.

"His suicide letter is filled with comments regarding the care of his patients," the woman wrote. "His charts were nicely complete, including detailed notes as to how various patients should be cared for. Yes, the burden is too great.... Now I am left alone to raise my two sons by myself, having sacrificed my husband to the business of caring."

Goldman said "the fact we're here in such a large group of like-minded people" provides hope that such tragic incidents will become more rare in the future.

Dr. Roberta Bondar, the neurologist-turned-astronaut who in 1992 became the first Canadian woman in space, closed the meeting with a message about the need for continuous personal growth. "If you're witnessing your first birth or first death [as a medical trainee], it can be life changing," she said. "That's what space was for me."

Conference participants could choose from among more than a dozen workshops. Taken together, they provided a primer on the issues facing MDs who treat or deal with physicians facing problems such as addiction, depression and stress. The sessions covered a raft of topics, from nutrition to medicolegal stress and from poor behaviour among trainees to boundary issues that arise when physician patients are being treated.

As the meeting ended, Dr. Mike Kaufmann, medical director of the OMA's PHP, said he thought organizers had "hit it out of the park" in developing the agenda. It was clear that few in the audience disagreed.

Forward any comments about this article to: cmanews@cma.ca

 

 

 

 

 

 

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