High rate of doctor suicides

[enginist]

Interesting article for those who've had contact with the medical profession.


https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/doctor-suicide-rates-medical-silence

[Charlie B53]

Once upon a time I seriously considered med school.

After learning of how pressured it would become, not only during school but Residency, I decided differently.

It would break my heart to be a Dr and lose patients because I couldn't fix them.  Sure, the rewarding feeling when people do get better can be quite uplifting, but the crush of not helping people that you have come to know and care for would be crushing.

I can well understand it breaking people.

I don't know how, but this needs to change.

[enginist]

Everything you say is true, Charlie, with the additional consideration that doctors have such easy access to means.  Cops, too, are always killing themselves, and one of the reasons is easy access. 

[cassandra]

The easy access to means will play a role for sure. But I read drs in the UK jump from buildings etc.  Cops don't carry guns here. The absence of mental health care must play a huge role. Is there grieve counselling for health care professionals?
I'll ask my dr or nurse at my next visit.
Is it also a lack in the drs etc education system? To be taught that you won't be able to help everybody? That you're not God? 16 years study doesn't mean you've stopped being human, and are now superman/woman.
And maybe, just maybe illness, including mental illness is not a weakness?

[Paul]

with the additional consideration that doctors have such easy access to means.  Cops, too, are always killing themselves, and one of the reasons is easy access.

I would have thought that in America everyone has easy access. Just pop into a gun shop, hand over your money, and go back out carrying a quick and easy way to leave the world!

[Charlie B53]

Long arms purchases may be completed in that one visit to the store for most all rifles and shotguns.

Short arms, paperwork, back ground checks, etc.

Ammo is over the counter.

Semi-automatic arms not a problem.

Full auto tightly regulated, limited to licensee's only by the Feds.  Anyone can apply, whether you are approved or not is another story.

[kristina]

It is very sad that so many doctors commit suicide. After all, they had studied medicine for so many years to become a doctor in the first place. Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that they studied medicine and the reason why they chose to study medicine is and was because they felt a heartfelt humanitarian urge to help patients with serious health issues, but the stress of working (too) many hours without a break and (too) much work in as little time as possible because of long waiting lists for patients with too many patients waiting is getting too much after a while? After all, they are just humans like us and they have often very difficult medical work to do.
I feel very sorry for these doctors who committed suicide and I do hope the whispering about this problem stops soon and a loud discussion about it starts soon, so that doctors get practical help in time very soon to enable them to deal with the stress of it all in a better and more positive way and I do send a heartfelt R.I.P to all doctors who did not receive the help they so badly needed when they reached a very low point in their life.

[enginist]

No question stress is a major problem for both cops and docs, and both professions hold themselves to a high standard, and are held to a high standard by their peers.  Seeking help is considered a sign of weakness, and the seekers can be stigmatized if discovered. Four policemen here in Chicago killed themselves this summer. As a former firefighter, I have nothing but sympathy for our brothers in blue, who often are vilified by the public for doing a very difficult job.  As you said, Kristina, it is very sad.  And you are right, Cassandra, that easy access doesn't guarantee that needles or firearms will be chosen as the means.  Suicide is contagious, and a certain site or method may become a tempting example for others to follow. The copy-cat phenomenon is well documented.

[MooseMom]

Seeking help is considered a sign of weakness, and the seekers can be stigmatized if discovered. Four policemen here in Chicago killed themselves this summer. As a former firefighter, I have nothing but sympathy for our brothers in blue, who often are vilified by the public for doing a very difficult job. 

My husband is a corporate counsel for a large city within the Chicagoland area, and he works closely with the police and fire departments.  As such, he is well acquainted with the culture within those departments and often talks about how toxic it can be just as you've outlined.  He has made sure that members of these departments have good and affordable access to mental health care, so it is a terrible, terrible shame that seeking help is seen as being "weak".  One would think that fellow first responders would be more supportive rather than rush to stigmatization.  Why do you think this culture is the way it is, and do you think it can ever change so that these employees would be encouraged to access the help that is covered under their insurance?

[enginist]

On the Fire Department, we had an employee assistance program that was said to offer private, anonymous counseling sessions.  The program was run by a respected officer who had a vocation, a calling for the work.  I don't know what overall impact it had because news of firefighter suicides, like that of doctors, is suppressed, again due to the danger of causing a contagion.

[PrimeTimer]

When I was a dental assistant we were told that there was a high rate of suicides among dentists because of their access to nitrous oxide. Would be a painless death. In my experience, people who commit or attempt suicide don't talk about it. They are usually in a good mood the day they do it because their minds are made up (no more struggling with the issue) and then with little or no warning, they do it. They know they have close friends or family or a professional to turn to but then they'd have to expose their most private and often what they view as, their most humiliating of experiences. For some that is just too much to bear in addition to their depression.

[enginist]

Yes, I've read that about dentists too.  And what you say is true.  Once the the decision has been made, they seem to be at peace with themselves, and no one sees it coming.  A very good book on a complicated subject is "Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide," by Kay Redfield Jamison.