Our Difference

MINDCHECK Health Professionals (HP) developed out of a genuine concern for the mental health and wellbeing of health care providers and a desire to be part of a change towards taking better care of our health carers. We have been distressed by reports in the media in recent years around the plight of our medical professionals and, in particular, the astonishing rate of mental health issues and suicides in the profession. Throughout our clinical practice we have worked with health professionals across various disciplines and have noticed common stressors, work-related challenges, and barriers to help-seeking, that increase vulnerability to mental health difficulties. It was apparent that there was a need for an independent, confidential psychological service focussed on attending to the mental wellbeing of our health care professionals.

We wish to be part of a change that sees:

• • reduced stigma around mental illness and increased treatment seeking
  • increased access to mental health support services
  • provision of excellence and best practice in mental health care for our health care providers

At the end of the day, health care providers are individuals that face similar challenges and are vulnerable to the same mental health issues as the general population. However, stigma and an expectation to be immune to stressors, both from within the health care profession and the general community, contributes to reduced access to support services.

Mental health issues amongst health care providers is not a matter of lack of resilience. As part of their professional lives health professionals regularly face:

• • • stress
    • long working hours
    • trauma
    • grief and loss
    • emotional injuries

They also face these at a greater rate than the general population. Thus, the stressors of the job can exceed the coping resources and resilience capacity of even the most ‘robust’ of individuals.