Supporting doctors’ mental health with ‘You Okay, Doc?’
Protecting healthcare professionals’ mental health has always been our top priority. Long before Covid-19, we outlined our mission to enable better flexibility, staffing and collaboration within the NHS. From each partnership we make to every touchpoint in our tech, our users’ wellbeing is at the heart of what we do.
We are therefore delighted to announce that Locum’s Nest have recently joined forces with ‘You Okay, Doc?’ (YOD), a mental health charity that seeks to improve and support doctors’ wellbeing worldwide.
Built by doctors, for doctors
In 2015, Dr Nicholas Andreou and Dr Ahmed Shahrabani created Locum’s Nest in a mission to solve the complexities of the NHS staffing crisis. Working on the front line as Junior Doctors, our two Co-Founders experienced first-hand the frustrations and personal stresses of medical rostering.
The need to improve doctors’ wellbeing through a collaborative workforce application was obvious - staff had no autonomy or flexibility and the process was mind-numbingly manual! - and today we’re proud to support over 40 NHS organisations with digital shift-matching, recruitment, communication and much more.
It was, therefore, a no-brainer for us to partner with You Okay, Doc?, providing even more resources to support our users’ mental health. The registered charity not only shares our values to better look after our healthcare professionals’ wellbeing but was also created by doctors who understand the inevitable pressures faced in medicine.
Voicing the need for better mental health
80% of doctors are at high risk of burnout. And only half have sought professional help for a mental condition. In the last decade alone, more healthcare workers have experienced mental health issues than ever before - and with the outbreak of Covid-19, these numbers only continue to rise.
In a recent study of 4,000 doctors, 58% stated they had anxiety or depression
It’s for these reasons that You Okay, Doc? was born. The organisation empowers doctors to seek support, normalises the conversation around mental health and creates change to remove institutional barriers to wellbeing.
Dr Daniel Gearon set up You Okay, Doc? in 2018 after losing his cousin, Dr Elizabeth Sizer, to suicide. Liz was a consultant anaesthetist at a London hospital. Her death was sudden and unexpected, highlighting the immediate need for dedicated physical and mental health support for our NHS professionals.
According to the British Medical Journal, doctors are two to five times more likely to take their own life than the general population, with one doctor dying from suicide approximately every three weeks. When faced with life or death situations on a daily basis (as well as unsociable shift patterns, exhausting demands and immense pressure); it can make ‘normal’ life seem unimaginable.
“We always really want to care for our patients. But we’re not going to be able to care for our patients if we can’t look after ourselves.” — Dr Daniel Gearon, Founder of You Okay, Doc?
The pandemic has clearly heightened the growing need to better support our NHS people's mental health and to challenge the perceptions of such within the medical sector. You Okay, Doc? is committed to this serious issue, uniting a safe community for doctors whilst facilitating their own research into how we can culturally shift how mental health is approached.
Free mental health support for frontline doctors
All Locum’s Nest users will now have free access to You Okay, Doc?’s library of resources and tools, which provide a safe space for healthcare professionals to speak freely about their mental health.
As well as a 24-hour helpline, doctors can join an online ‘Huddle’; an informal, weekly chat hosted by psychotherapists where attendees talk about their challenges, relate to each other and normalise their feelings. Our users will also benefit from:
access to the YOD Pod; a podcast series exploring the future of health and how to catalyse significant change
a series of wellbeing webinars and seminars featuring inspirational guests from athletes to military personnel
24/7 confidential text messaging support from trained mental health professionals
and more!
You’ll also receive priority access to a calendar of events and initiatives throughout the year - watch this space for more information!
All NHS professionals can watch You Okay, Doc?’s Microsteps Webinar Series today. In partnership with #FirstRespondersFirst, a number of speakers discuss a number of small, actionable and science-backed steps that you can take to make immediate changes in your daily life and work.
You can also follow You Okay Doc? on Instagram for a daily dose of support and encouragement at @youokaydoc.
You Okay, Doc? Is a registered charity that relies on donations to deliver critical wellbeing support to frontline doctors. Every penny is used to facilitate independent research and help those in the medical sector to benefit from better mental health services. Learn more about how you can help today.