INformation, advice and help
Financial help
After six months sick leave, pay decreases by 50%, and financial hardship on top of illness is very stressful. Various bodies exist which can be approached for help.
1. Royal Medical Benevolent Fund (RMBF) 020 8540 9194 or http://www.rmbf.org offers help for doctors or doctors’ families of any age. In addition to actual financial assistance, the RMBF offers advice on grants, loans and helps negotiate debt payments. There is also a facility for support whilst retraining and during the initial phase of returning to work after prolonged interval.
www.support4doctors.org is an RMBF project with further details on their support mechanisms.
2. Royal Medical Foundation 01372 821010 / 821011
A source of financial help for families of doctors (including deceased) even if not doctors themselves or in civil partnerships with a doctor.
Return to work is possible www.mja.com.au/public/issues/177_01_010702/14_farmer.html
Independent Career Assessment 0705 007 7171 www.medicalforum.com Medical Forum, Greyhound House Richmond, Surrey TW9 1HY, POBox 7331 Basingstoke RG28 9AF Tel: or 07000 790173
Podcast
Pod cast doctors.net November 2006 - Special focus on doctors and addiction. http://www.doctors.net.uk/podcast/default.aspx?year=2006
Personal stories
‘The loneliness of an alcoholic doctor’
BMJ, Sep 2003; 327: 78s. http://careerfocus.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/327/7414/s78
‘Physician don’t heal thyself ….’
http://www.sick-doctors-trust.co.uk/story.html
redigitaleditions.com/ActiveMagazine/welcome/ehd/ehd070111.asp - P38 - an alcoholic anaesthetists story
Articles
Articles by Dr Mike Kauffman, founder of the Ontario Physicians Health Programme on stress, suicide and depression in physicians
www.phpoma.org/php/www/Articles/ClinicalAdvice.html
"Our Duty of Care"
The Medical Journal of Australia 1 July 2002 Supplement MJA 2002; 177 (1 Suppl): S1-S32
The Student and the Junior Doctor in Distress
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/177_01_010702/2_wilhelm.html
Return to work for junior doctors after ill-health
Jillann F Farmer — Med J Aust 2002; 177 (1 Suppl): S27-S29.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/ 177_01_010702/14_farmer.html
The junior doctor in distress: the role of a medical education officer at the individual level
Karen Grace — Med J Aust 2002; 177 (1 Suppl): S22-S24.
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