A Day I Wish We Didn't Need

UPDATE

A DAY I WISH WE DIDN'T NEED

Dr. Jessie Mahoney, SFMMS Physician Wellness Committee Chair

September 17th, 2021 was National Physician Suicide Awareness Day.

Physician suicide is one of the reasons I have been so dedicated to physician wellness for the last 20 years. A physician commits suicide in the US on average every single day and rates are going up. Physicians have the highest suicide rate of any profession and twice the national average. The work we do as physicians is beyond hard. Especially now.

Yes, we knew it would be hard. What we didn’t know is that our trained thought patterns—those that serve us well as diagnosticians and in emergencies also make us even more susceptible to burnout, general life and relationship unhappiness, and even suicide. The culture in medicine is that self-care is selfish and reaching out for help and even needing help as a physician and healer is a weakness. Most physicians suffer and struggle in silence.

We need to change the culture around help-seeking and mental health in medicine.

And support wellness as a “value, not a problem.”

We need to support each other with kindness and unconditional support around our perceived weaknesses and encourage help-seeking behavior.

Mindfulness and coaching are tools to help ease and prevent burnout, exhaustion, depression, anxiety, overwhelm, and relationship distress. Sometimes even more help is needed.

There is no shame in reaching out for any and all kinds of help.

Paraphrasing Charley Macesky in The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, “When have you been at your strongest? When you ask for help.”

Mental health struggles are everywhere—in loved ones and colleagues. Whether they show outwardly or not. Let’s stop the stigma, encourage help-seeking behavior and show up with mindful loving kindness. Mindfulness is noticing, awareness, generosity, patience, non-judgment, compassion, attention, and intention.

I recommend taking a listen to the Mindful Healers Podcast episode entitled “Getting Help Helps.”

In it, my colleague, Dr. Ni-Cheng Liang and I talk about common barriers to getting help and why reaching out for help is a demonstration of strength.

Dr. Jessie Mahoney is a Board-Certified Pediatrician, a certified life coach for physicians, and a yoga instructor. She is the Chair of the SFMMS Physician Wellness Task Force. She practiced Pediatrics and was a Physician Wellness leader at Kaiser Permanente for 17 years. She is the founder of Pause and Presence Coaching where she supports her physician colleagues using mindfulness tools and mindset coaching. She is a founding leader of the Mindful Healthcare Collective and is a co-host of the Mindful Healers Podcast. She teaches virtual weekly yoga to physicians and other healthcare providers and in non-Covid times, leads yoga and wellness retreats in beautiful locations around the world. You can connect with her at jessie@ jessiemahoneymd.com.

NATIONAL PHYSICIAN SUICIDE

AWARENESS DAY

Dr. Marjorie Smith, Wellness Committee Leader and Culinary Medicine Series Facilitator, Estero Trail, Point Reyes & at Mono Lake "One of my favorite hikes is on the Estero Trail at Point Reyes National Seashore Park because it traverses through several types of ecosystems including the high cliffs above the shore line of the Home Bay, an extension of Drake's Estero. Before reaching the high cliffs of the trail that treat one to vistas of sweeping grassland and the expanse of the Estero, the trail emerges from a pine forest into a clearing that overlooks the upper shore and wetlands of Home Bay-the photo captures this place. A great birdwatching and listening spot, it delights all the senses at any time of day. I especially enjoy it here an hour before sunset when the Marbled Godwits gather together on the shore's edge".

“Hiking and birdwatching at Mono Lake” Dr. Jessie Mahoney, Wellness Committee Chair in Muir Woods.

Join Us to Heal, Connect and Grow:

Our SFMMS Physician Wellness Team continues to grow our efforts to nourish, care for, and support our member physicians in Marin and San Francisco. We are working ongoing to change perceptions around physician wellness. We hope to promote a culture where physicians see taking care of their health and wellness as a non-negotiable component of being a healthy and effective physician.

Free Wellness Resources for Physicians: SFMMS Physician Wellness Webpage

Visit the SFMMS Physician Wellness page at http://www.sfmms.org/get-help/physician-wellness to find curated resources for our SFMMSphysician members.