Psychiatric Services for Doctors: Free Therapy

In 2008 there were several tragedies. UK National Health Service (NHS) created a program Practitioner Health. After several cases where medical workers were unable to access the care they needed, resulting in death, this service was launched, which today served more than 28,000 specialists. Initially it was only in London, and now they are a “service largest Europe, possibly the world“, according to its CEO Lucy Warner, medical letter.

Doctors are not immune from suffering mental health or addiction problems; they must not suffer in silence and must be sure that they can receive the same. privacy service“They care about themselves more than they care about their patients,” Practitioner Health founder Claire Gerada wrote 15 years ago, defending the existence of the program. 13 years later, England’s independent health and welfare regulator, the Care Quality Commission, rated it as “great” and praised that patients can access the service at “correct” waiting time. “Over the years we have shown that we save money in the system because we are not losing doctors and keeping patients safe,” Warner said.

The NHS program is available throughout England and Scotland to all carers who need it, i.e. free and confidential. They’ve been doing everything since the pandemic Online, though if one prefers face-to-face attention, that’s also available. count 150 doctors and 300 therapists. Warner is protecting this separation of medical centers and hospitals in order to preserve the privacy of medical professionals. “Health workers like to go to more anonymous places. Although that doesn’t mean it can’t work in a hospital. It depends on whether there is a way to protect the privacy of the people who access the services,” says the CEO.

Comprehensive doctor care program

Before the NHS decided to create Practitioner Health, Metges College in Barcelona was pioneer in Europe Creation Comprehensive doctor care program (Paime) in 1998. It is intended for healthcare professionals with mental health problems and/or addictive behaviors that may interfere with their professional activities. since its inception They served about 14,000 toilets.. The numbers have skyrocketed with the pandemic, with just 5,300 patients from 1998 to 2020.

Like the English service, the Catalan service, which has spread throughout Spain with the support of professional associations, emphasizes the importance of program confidentiality. “Toilets do not use the public system when they have problems. They don’t want to be identified as medical professionals with mental health problems or addictions,” says Tony Calvo, director of the Galatea Foundation. stigma on mental health And addictionsalthough it has improved since pandemicis still an obstacle to seeking help from professionals, especially doctors,” he adds.

Both Calvo and Warner note that anxiety This is the most common reason health professionals contact these services. “When we opened the Galatea Clinic in 1998, 80 percent of the visits were for addictions and the rest for mental health issues. Now it’s the other way around,” says the director of Galatea.

Public and private funding

Although both services have similar goals, they differ in public funding they receive. While the English Service is funded entirely by the English and Scottish governments, the Galatea Foundation has only 60 percent government funding. Another great contribution is made by schools of various health professions (nurses, psychologists, social work…). In addition, they have an agreement with Collegiate medical organization (OMC) to be able to treat the most serious cases of doctors from the rest of Spain in the Galatea Clinic itself.

The director of the Foundation believes that funding should be through public authoritiesas in the program Practitioner Health, and does not depend on private initiative. “Majority mental and addiction problems that health professionals currently have are associated with the often inadequate functioning of their own sanitary system. At the same time, it is logical that the system itself protects them, says Calvo. – We have the best medical professionals in the world. They are very well trained in terms of knowledge, but most of them have been educated and trained to take care of others rather than taking care of themselves,” he adds, qualifying this as a handicap. For direct it is “very important” to train specialists in managing emotions, overcoming difficulties…so that they can carry out a task “as difficult as the health of cities”.