Recently I read in the press that the dream jobs du jour are psychologist and spy. The loneliest job in the world must be being a spy. Not only can you not tell anyone how you spend your time each day, you can’t even name what you do. 

I imagine there must be some exposure to trauma and a little bit of work-related stress as well! And what about the fact that you are not even able to be your authentic self with the person you love most in the world? The only people you can talk to are your colleagues and, even then, you need to be very careful.

What about GPs and Mental Health Professionals?

Like spies, those of us who work in mental health hold lots of stories in our minds that we are not able to share. Many of those stories are disturbing, if not traumatic. We are expected to help people with all sorts of problems, many of which are beyond our powers to solve. This truth is, sometimes our job can be very stressful and very lonely.

At least GPs and mental health professionals can tell people what they do for a living. Sometimes they do so at their own risk – at parties, for example. Getting caught in a corner with someone who wants to tell you about their family history of heart disease, the trouble they are having with their waterworks or their mother’s nervous breakdown is not most health professional’s idea of fun. I don’t think I’m the only GP who has ever told a white lie (well, a big lie really!) about what they do for a living to avoid a conversation that felt a little too much like being at work. 

What GPs like me can’t ever do is talk about what happens once they close the door of their consulting room, and that’s where problems can arise. Sometimes we all need to talk to ease some of the pain we inherit from the people we see. Lots of health practitioners are in the same boat. 

What do you do when you see someone with a problem that you don’t know how to solve? What do you do when their problems begin to overwhelm you, or when they press the secret buttons of your own heart?

Psychologists have an advantage – they have a tradition of supervision to help them with these difficult times. But GPs, not so much.

If you are a health professional registered with AHPRA, we welcome you to join the conversation on the Mental Health Community of Practice by registering online.

Supervision

I once had a GP colleague who was very interested in mental health. He did extra training and set himself up as a mental health GP. I asked him about his supervision arrangements and he said, outraged, “I don’t need supervision – I’m a doctor!”

My colleague’s reaction is not common, but it does reflect the misunderstanding that sometimes occurs around what supervision is all about. It’s not about someone telling you what to do. It’s about helping you find solutions and supporting you while you do so.

Peer support

The thing we need to remember is that we can talk to our colleagues. Our colleagues share our ethical values. They respect the people they see, and they want to help them. Not only can they provide us with support if we are floundering, they can, especially if they are from other mental health disciplines, shine a light on solutions and strategies we have not thought of yet. 

The kind of ‘peer supervision’ (or maybe I should call it ‘peer support’) that I’m talking about can be acquired informally in the tearoom or formally in regular meetings with a group of colleagues and even online.

At Black Dog Institute, we have developed an online Community of Practice to help GPs, psychologists and other mental health practitioners work through some of the problems they see in their clinical practices through interactions with their peers. We are hoping for cross-disciplinary exchange of ideas to help break down the silos in mental health care.

So far so good – we have nearly 3000 members from the full gamut of mental health disciplines.

What our members say about the Community of Practice

I asked a few members to tell me about the value of the Community of Practice to them. Here’s some of what they had to say:

"[The Community of Practice is an] incredibly valuable resource. There’s ideas from others for client assessments and interventions for complex needs and information to increase familiarity with evidence-based, effective e-mental health resources that I now use regularly in my practice. My own wellbeing is supported by the support and practitioner wellbeing focus as well, which encourages me to keep looking after myself." (Clinical psychologist – Melbourne) 

“I find the Community of Practice helps me to understand what clinical practice can look like, especially the demands on physicians' time and attention. I really enjoy the case discussions, as I learn a lot from the different perspectives which helps to inform how I interpret and approach clinical research.”  (Research psychologist – Sydney)

“The access to the latest research and thinking, often directly from the researchers themselves, means that I am up-to-date with the latest evidence and I can use that to influence the thinking of leaders in the workplace.” (Workplace Mental Health Educator – Sydney)

If you are a health professional registered with AHPRA, we welcome you to join the conversation on the Mental Health Community of Practice by registering online.

They say a problem shared is a problem halved, and this couldn’t be truer for health professionals working in mental health.

We hope the online Community of Practice will continue to grow as a place for collective problem-solving, helping lift the shroud of secrecy that has typically limited dialogue between health professionals.