Dr Malcolm Kinnear - &me anti stigma campaign
- by Malcolm Kinnear
- •
- 10 May, 2017
- •
&me
is our joint campaign, with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' Mind Matters
Initiative, to encourage senior, currently well healthcare professionals including doctors, vets, dentists and pharmacists to informally self identify as having experienced a mental health condition in order to reduce the stigma of mental health in the healthcare professions.
Find out more about our campaign and how you might get involved here
Read on to learn about our volunteer Malcolm's inspiring story:
Find out more about our campaign and how you might get involved here
Read on to learn about our volunteer Malcolm's inspiring story:
Dr Malcolm Kinnear - consultant psychiatrist
Malcolm Kinnear graduated in 1990, but had not completed his psychiatric training when he went on long term sick leave with depression in 1997. He joined the Doctors' Support Network in 1999 and became active in organising its Scottish activities from 2004 as his mental health very gradually improved. In 2009 he attempted to return to clinical practice, initially struggling to find a way back as no official route existed, but obtained a specialty doctor post with NHS Fife in open competition on the basis of his work with DSN as well as his independent Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
Malcolm resumed full time practice after a period of shadowing and part time work. He applied successfully to re-enter higher psychiatric training in 2014 and obtained his Certificate of Completion Training in adult psychiatry in February 2017. He was then appointed to a substantive consultant psychiatrist post with a community mental health team in Dundee, with sessions in the Tayside specialist adult autism team.
Malcolm has actively advocated for better healthcare for doctors and is currently involved in a multi-organisation working group to set up a Managed Clinical Network for doctors with mental health problems in Scotland. He has an honorary teaching position with the University of Dundee (twice nominated for a FaME - Faculty of Medical Educators - award) in which capacity he reminds medical students to look after their own health and to remember that doctors can find themselves patients too. He also finds that having taken some of the medications he now prescribes can be rather helpful in terms of understanding their effects!
Seeking help?
Our wonderful &Me ambassadors share their inspiring stories to provide general encouragement and to help breakdown stigma, but if you need support, please seek it from your healthcare provider or a specialist service, rather than contacting our ambassadors in person. See our 'Support for Doctors' page for listings of various services and organisations specialising in supporting medics with mental ill health.
Dr Louise Freeman addresses barriers to access to work faced by medics with mental ill health needing reasonable adjustments.
Dr Louise Freeman is the co-chair of the Doctors' Support Network. Here, she talks about why prioritising your own health can feel difficult in times of crisis such as the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Serena Haywood on talking about her experience of mental ill health: 'The fear and isolation ... led me to take the risky decision to start talking about my mental health as much as I could to as many people as would listen. I was advised not to but did it anyway. And my life changed from there.'
Psychologist Caroline Elton discusses the difficult issue of talking about our own mental ill health. 'I don’t want to collude with the fantasy that depression, or any other mental illness, only happens to other people. It has certainly happened to me. '
CLANGERS, keeping well for medics, specialist support and creativity were all on the programme at our recent conference in Bristol.
Dr Cathy Wield discusses how and when to talk about our recovery from mental ill health.
DSN co-chairs, Dr Louise Freeman and Dr Angelika Luehrs, discuss how and why we are talking about our own mental health as doctors, including an explanation of our AndMe anti stigma campaign with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons' Mind Matters Initiative.
Dr Cathy Wield discusses how we often shy away from naming physician mental health by using the term 'physician health'.
BBC Radio Five Live discussion about Prof. Steve Robson's article recounting his experience of attempting suicide as a trainee doctor with comment from his colleague Dr Kate Tree and an interview with Dr Laura McGregor, consultant in emergency medicine
Clare Gerada: ' We can't keep photographing the problem (physician health) - we need to do something about it.'
