San Francisco Marin Medicine, Vol. #94, No. 4, OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021

Page 41

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

WWW.SFMMS.ORG

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2021 SAN FRANCISCO MARIN MEDICINE

39


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Articles inside

A Day I Wish We Didn't Need

3min
pages 41-42

Legalizing "Obstetrics of the Soul" in California

6min
pages 39-40

The Respect Project

3min
page 38

SFMMS Interview: Alex Smith and Eric Widera, Hosts of GeriPal Podcast

7min
pages 36-37

Community Approach to Advance Care Planning and Palliative Care in San Francisco

3min
page 34

Storytelling in Palliative Care

3min
page 35

Palliative Aesthetics: Finding Our Way Into the Eye of the Beholder

4min
page 33

Reconciliation: A Practice in Letting Go

7min
pages 30-31

Palliative Care and Our Community

6min
pages 28-29

Amazing Grace in Navajo Nation

4min
page 32

Discussing the Unspeakable: Serious Illness with Aging Chinese Parents

7min
pages 26-27

Racial Disparities in Palliative Care: Can We Be Honest?

6min
pages 24-25

Universal Palliative Care—The MERI Center's Vision for Education in Palliative Care

8min
pages 20-21

Some Myths About Medical Aid in Dying: What Have We Learned at the Bedside?

8min
pages 22-23

The Benefit of Hospice

6min
pages 18-19

Pandemic to Pandemic: A Career in Palliative Care

4min
page 16

New and Improved Advance Care Planning: Making it Easier for Patients and Clinicians

7min
pages 12-13

Membership Matters

4min
pages 4-6

Grief on Fire

7min
pages 14-15

President's Message

3min
page 7

SFMMS Book Review: "Pearls From the Practice" by John Chuck, MD

4min
page 17

Pediatric Palliative Care and the Cure for Medicine

8min
pages 10-11

Executive Memo

0
page 8
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