Peer Support

Peer Support

Online 

DSN Support Forum

Full and student members of DSN are encouraged to take part in our online Support Forum. This is an anonymous, confidential, safe place in which to discuss your experience of being a medic with a mental health problem. 
 
How to join the forum instructions are provided to new Full and Student members of DSN and in every members' newsletter. 
DSN social media pages
DSN now has a new Facebook page as well as its long established Facebook group.  

We are also on Twitter @DocSupportNet (you don' t have to join Twitter to read posts)  and LinkedIn.

Please 'like' and 'follow' our social media accounts to keep up with DSN news in between newsletters.  Click on the icons on the right to go to the relevant page.
DSN Facebook group
DSN has a well established open Facebook group. Anyone can ask to join this group so you are welcome to join even if you are not a UK doctor. However, as we are unable to check on a group member's credentials, members are advised not to post anything to the group that they would not be happy to be publicly available on the Internet.

Face to Face meetings

DSN local groups
DSN full members are invited to attend their local group. DSN groups are mutually supportive i.e. the instigator of the meet up is not in a 'caring' role. The following groups are currently in operation.
York DSN group
Rosemary Lethem says 'The York group was the first regional group to be set up, in around 2004. It meets approximately monthly at The Retreat, a private psychiatric hospital in York and site of the reformer William Tuke’s quiet revolution in mental health care, by treating patients with rest, kindness and respect. Tuke’s chair is in the boardroom where we have our meetings. The hospital does not charge us. Numbers attending vary between three and twelve.  

Our members are mainly psychiatrists and GPs, who know the value of talking and group support, which is a pity, as there must be all those other doctors going it alone out there. Most people are well most of the time. Who is there and what is said are confidential, but the style is purely social. We tend to catch up on what we have all been doing, from which themes emerge which we can explore. We benefit from others’ experiences, while helping them through our own.
Please come and join the York DSN group! (or another one if you can’t make it to York). The thing about groups is that you meet real people, not cyber ones on line. It is strangely humanising.  

You will be welcomed, accepted, supported and validated!'

Click on the button on the right to contact the York DSN group. Remember that you need to be a full member of DSN (not an associate member) in order to attend the meetings.  

JOIN DSN
Doctors' Support Network 2016 The Retreat, York mental health
The Retreat, York
Contact York DSN group
North East England DSN group
There is an active DSN group in the North East of England (established in 2013) holding regular monthly meetings (not July or August) in central Newcastle upon Tyne. The group is coordinated by Dr Louise Freeman, co-chair of DSN.

Click on the button on the left to contact the NE DSN group. Remember that you need to be a full member of DSN (not an associate member) in order to attend the meetings.  

JOIN DSN
Doctors' Support Network 2016 Dr Malcolm Kinnear mental health
Scotland DSN group
DSN Scotland has a small number of active members spread across a wide geographical area. Meetings therefore tend to be held sporadically in the central belt, usually in members’ homes & often with associated social activities such as home cooked meals, visiting local sights or country walks.  

​Dr Malcolm Kinnear says 'We are involved in a working group with Royal College of Psychiatrists & Scottish Executive to develop a managed care network for sick doctors, which we hope will improve the situation north of the border within the next year.'
If there is no DSN group in your area, why not consider starting one? Get in touch via the Contact DSN page.
Get involved
 
DSN is very grateful to receive articles for publication on the website. Have you been to an interesting meeting / experienced a helpful activity / have you ever thought - does everyone know about this?  
​Please send us an article if you would like it to be considered for inclusion on the website via the Contact DSN page.
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