Prof. Jamie Hacker Hughes - &me anti stigma campaign
- by Louise Freeman
- •
- 03 Jul, 2017
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&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 Jamie's inspiring story:
Find out more about our campaign and how you might get involved here
Read on to learn about our volunteer Jamie's inspiring story:
Prof. Jamie Hacker Hughes, consultant clinical psychologist
Professor Jamie Hacker Hughes is a consultant clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and supervisor currently working in independent practice in central London and leading a religious order as the newly elected Minister Provincial of the Anglican Franciscan Third Order.
Five years after qualifying as a clinical psychologist, Jamie was diagnosed with Type 2 bipolar affective disorder after 20 years experience of anxiety and depression. He has been on Lithium prophylaxis ever since.
After his diagnosis, Jamie gained a consultant post with the Ministry of Defence, becoming head of healthcare psychology and travelling to Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, gained three fellowships and four professorships, established a research institute and has just finished a term of office as President of the British Psychological Society .
He has published and lectured widely and edited two books, the first of which was Battle against Stigma.
Jamie says that it is really important that people at the top of the profession speak openly about the fact that they are human too!
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.'
