Beneath the White Coat: Doctors, Their Minds and Mental Health

Summary

This timely book offers a balanced and thoughtful review of the current mental health emergency and its impact upon and among medical professionals, supported by the best available evidence and illustrated through real-life cases. Recognizing the increasing stressors in the role including the impact of the environment in which doctors work, the book examines some of the key emotional drivers for this unhappiness among doctors at work—shame, stigma, suffering, and sacrifice—and offers practical steps to emotional and physical recovery.

Despite the obvious challenges and stresses of the role, with the right support in place the vast majority of doctors can thrive in their jobs. Policy makers, politicians, educators, and hospital managers will be reminded of the ethical duty to ensure that doctors are cared for and have access to the time, people, and spaces to remain psychological healthy, while doctors will learn to recognize and seek actively the help that they need, and to support and guide one another.