Destigmatizing Mental Health in Healthcare Workers

Doctors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals (including mental health practitioners), and healthcare support staffs form the backbones of Malaysia’s healthcare system. These healthcare workers dedicate most of their time caring for their patients’ recovery and wellbeing. However, what they often neglect is their own physical health and mental health. As healthcare workers, we typically begin each consultation with our patients by asking “How are you?”, or “Are you feeling better?” yet too often neglected to ask ourselves that question.

Healthcare workers may experience their own stressors in life, family, and work, (e.g., personal health concerns, conflict with a family member, parenting a difficult child, patients’ sudden relapse in their illness). Nonetheless, we are trained to put aside our personal concerns as we conduct ourselves professionally and hold space for our patients. However, this may come at a cost if we neglect our own mental health.

A quick look at our national statistics shows that 81.9% of Malaysian healthcare workers such as doctors, pharmacists, medical assistance, and nurses reported personal and work-related burnout. While many have strong intentions to seek mental health help, they have concerns such as the perceived weakness in help-seeking, feelings of embarrassment, preferences to handle issues on their own, and challenges to schedule an available time slot from a typical healthcare worker’s hectic schedule.

Past research has shown common factors of burnout include high workload and work-life conflict, which are linked to adverse health outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, intentions to quit their jobs). This calls for greater and gentler care for our healthcare workers’ wellbeing as part of the healthcare system, especially since they play a major role in supporting the weight of our nation’s healthcare.

For many, seeking mental health help could feel like admitting a professional failing, instead of addressing a health need. In a world that gives high praises to success, the acknowledgement of our human imperfections are hard pills to swallow. In the healthcare system, we would not hesitate to inform patients to seek the necessary consultations soonest possible, with concerns of poor prognosis if they delay help-seeking.

Yet, when it comes to us, help-seeking easily becomes a moment of denial or second-guessing our health need, and embarrassment in admitting the hardest 3 words “I need help.”. Perhaps it is moments of our own weakness that helps us better empathise with patients’ delay in help-seeking, and therefore a greater respect and appreciation for when they do seek help. Seeking mental health help is never a sign of weakness but of courage and strength, it is one that we need to remind ourselves and our patients.

Another barrier to seeking mental health help, is having to find a time that suits our schedule. Seeking mental health help opens us to a great moment of vulnerability as we face our own human limits and imperfections, and small inconveniences (e.g., complex booking systems, unsure preferences for mental health therapist, unavailability) could very quickly become an excuse to delay our decision for seeking mental health help.

Moreover, the unknowns often fuel our fear in seeking mental health help, so perhaps a lingering question would be “How can therapy help me?”. Therapy is a journey that allows us to objectively make sense of our thoughts, face our own human imperfections, have more compassion for our flaws as well as past pains. This makes room for gentler care towards ourselves in our personal wellbeing and journey of growth, and clears mental capacity for greater care to patients in our line of work.

Ultimately, no one can pour from an empty cup. Prioritizing our mental health is not a sign of weakness, rather it makes for a more resilience, compassionate, and effective clinician. Let us seek to fill our cup so we can better serve our patients in the healthcare system.