June 21, 2017
Kingaroy Health Service staff put their best foot forward for a good cause earlier this month to mark “Socks4Docs” Day.
Doctors, nurses, administration and support staff donned crazy socks to raise awareness of mental health issues and suicide rates among health care workers.
Kingaroy Acting Director of Nursing Aschleigh Perring said statistics showed doctors were twice as likely to commit suicide as the general population,
But he said Socks4Docs Day was also for all people who worked in the health care industry.
“Health care workers dedicate their professional lives to looking after others and this can sometimes come at the expense of taking care of themselves and identifying when their colleagues might be struggling,” Mr Perring said.
“Health service staff can suffer from mental health issues triggered by a number of causes including physical illness, depression, exhaustion (and) stress,” he said.
Mr Perring said there was also pressures from expectations that health care professionals were flawless.
“Our staff work in highly emotionally fuelled areas. They witness life and death situations, counsel grieving families, and are always turned to for support,” he said.
“This can take a toll on even the strongest person and if support mechanisms are not used this toll can be tragic.
“Mental health is an area that we seldom speak about with each other in the health fraternity.
“On Socks4Docs Day, crazy socks are used as a conversation starter to raise awareness of physical and mental health issues among health care workers with the goal of changing workplace culture and encouraging health care workers to care for each other.
“Socks4Docs Day is all about removing the stigma surrounding mental health within the health profession by talking to our co-workers and checking in on each other.”
