DOCTORS, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals (including mental health practitioners), and support staff form the backbone of Malaysia’s healthcare system. They dedicate most of their time to caring for their patients’ recovery and wellbeing. However, the other side of that is that they often neglect their own physical and mental health.
Healthcare workers typically begin each consultation with patients by asking “How are you?”, or “Are you feeling better?” – yet too often they neglect to ask themselves those questions.
Like everyone else, healthcare workers experience typical life stressors – family life issues like conflict with a family member maybe, or parenting a difficult child, as well as work issues, like a patient’s sudden relapse perhaps. Unlike many, though, healthcare workers are trained to put aside personal concerns to conduct themselves professionally and hold space for their patients. However, this may come at a cost if they neglect their own mental health.
National statistics show that 81.9% of Malaysian healthcare workers have reported personal and work-related burnout. While many have strong intentions to seek mental health help, they face obstacles such as perceived weakness in help-seeking, feelings of embarrassment, a preference to handle issues on their own, and challenges in finding time within a usually hectic schedule.
Past research has shown common factors of burnout include high workload and work-life conflict, which are linked to adverse health outcomes like depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and intentions to quit their jobs.
This calls for greater care for these workers’ wellbeing as part of the national healthcare system, especially since they play a major role in supporting the weight of the 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 praise to success, the acknowledgement of human imperfection is a hard pill to swallow.
Healthcare workers do not hesitate to tell patients to seek necessary consultations soonest possible, as a poor prognosis could result if there is delay. Yet, when it comes to themselves, help-seeking becomes denial or second-guessing health needs – not to mention embarrassment in having to say those three difficult words, “I need help”.
These moments of personal weakness offer their own lessons, though. They could help healthcare staff better empathise with patients’ delay in help-seeking and, hence, develop a greater appreciation for when patients do seek help in a timely manner.
But for both patients and healthcare workers, seeking mental health help should never be seen as a sign of weakness but of courage and strength – patients and workers both must be reminded of this often.
Another barrier to seeking mental health help that is, arguably, unique to healthcare workers is finding the time to schedule the help they seek.
While seeking mental health help opens healthcare workers to moments of vulnerability in facing human limits and imperfections, it is the small inconveniences – complex booking systems, not knowing therapist preferences, unavailability of doctors – that can very quickly become an excuse to delay seeking help.
Moreover, the unknown often fuels our fear in seeking such help, throwing up questions like “How can therapy help me?” Therapy is a journey that allows us to objectively make sense of our thoughts, face our own human imperfections, and 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 for others.
Ultimately, no one can pour from an empty cup. Prioritising mental health care is not a sign of weakness, rather it makes for a more resilient, compassionate, and effective healthcare worker.
In conjunction with this year’s World Health Day on April 7 especially, this writer calls on all fellow healthcare workers: Let us seek to fill our cup so we can better serve our patients.
Dr Vera Pillai is a Sarawak-based clinical psychologist and the founder of the Mind Wave Psychological Centre. She also serves as a consultant clinical psychologist at a private specialist hospital in Miri.
