Resident speaks about mental health

Thank you for the article “Distress among residents” in the February issue of Canadian Family Physician.¹ I have experienced some very stressful times during residency, through a combination of both personal and workplace factors. Just like the students that Dr Ladouceur discussed, I entered residency without mental health problems but am finishing residency while taking medication, despite my best efforts at work-life balance. I do not regret my career choice and am looking forward to entering practice, but I can now understand the physicians I have met over the years who commented that they would never want their children to go into medicine.

I definitely think that giant leaps have been made in terms of identifying learners in distress and providing them with support. However, the oversight lies in the lack of effort to prevent learners from becoming distressed and entering a crisis state in the first place. Just like in treating our patients, we cannot get hung up on treating crises and acute illnesses—we need to focus on prevention, and simply having a mandatory lecture about the importance of sleep, regular exercise, and healthy diet is not the right prescription.

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