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Source: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada...doctors-are-taking-a-mental-health-break.html
Psychiatrist burnout: Why COVID-weary doctors are taking a mental-health break
As demand for mental health care skyrockets, many Canadian doctors are stepping back from the front lines to heal themselves
By Katharine Lake Berz Special to the Star
Sat., Jan. 15, 2022
Toronto psychiatrist Dr. Yusra Ahmad’s infectious laugh belies the stress she is feeling.
The single mother and survivor of domestic violence worries about her 12-year-old daughter learning virtually.
“It’s difficult,” she says. “Online school is definitely bad for her. And it’s difficult for me to have her home and juggle my patients.”
Ahmad had to leave in-person work at Toronto General Hospital when her daughter’s schooling moved online in 2020, and is relieved that classrooms are set to re-open Monday, but will be watching public health guidance closely.
She now sees patients online, many of whom struggle with the same pandemic stress, loneliness and anxiety that she suffers from. Besides her practice, Ahmad advocates against gender-based, racial and religious violence that she understands from personal experience. To deal with it all, she has cut back her patient workload to preserve her own mental health.
“I found it all too much,” says Ahmad. “Our work can sometimes hit a little close to home.”
As demand for mental health-care skyrockets in Canada, the pandemic has fuelled a front-line crisis few are talking about: psychiatrist burnout, with “extraordinary” rates of exhaustion in an overtaxed profession, says Ahmad...
Psychiatrist burnout: Why COVID-weary doctors are taking a mental-health break
As demand for mental health care skyrockets, many Canadian doctors are stepping back from the front lines to heal themselves
By Katharine Lake Berz Special to the Star
Sat., Jan. 15, 2022
Toronto psychiatrist Dr. Yusra Ahmad’s infectious laugh belies the stress she is feeling.
The single mother and survivor of domestic violence worries about her 12-year-old daughter learning virtually.
“It’s difficult,” she says. “Online school is definitely bad for her. And it’s difficult for me to have her home and juggle my patients.”
Ahmad had to leave in-person work at Toronto General Hospital when her daughter’s schooling moved online in 2020, and is relieved that classrooms are set to re-open Monday, but will be watching public health guidance closely.
She now sees patients online, many of whom struggle with the same pandemic stress, loneliness and anxiety that she suffers from. Besides her practice, Ahmad advocates against gender-based, racial and religious violence that she understands from personal experience. To deal with it all, she has cut back her patient workload to preserve her own mental health.
“I found it all too much,” says Ahmad. “Our work can sometimes hit a little close to home.”
As demand for mental health-care skyrockets in Canada, the pandemic has fuelled a front-line crisis few are talking about: psychiatrist burnout, with “extraordinary” rates of exhaustion in an overtaxed profession, says Ahmad...