“Our research has shown that a service like the hubs is precisely the kind of discreet service that highly stressed health professionals need and want…”

I've been involved in research into mental health in high stress occupations for a few years now. We've conducted research with doctors, nurses and police. Our aims have been to establish how likely these groups would be to seek help if they needed it, what would influence their decision-making and what their treatment choices and coping strategies would be. It is important to understand how those in helping professions feel and act when they are the ones who need help.

In our studies of doctors, as many as one third report that mental health difficulties have affected their personal, social and working life. Doctors, student nurses and nurses feel uncomfortable disclosing their mental health difficulties to employers or work colleagues. Their reluctance to disclose is often driven by concerns about a lack of confidentiality and how this might affect their professional standing.

Our studies (and many others besides) have shown that health professionals experience high levels of stress compared to the general population. It is inevitable that many will experience psychological difficulty due to the work they do, or perhaps due to family life – or both.

If they are unable to access confidential and professional mental health support, their difficulties will endure for longer, or will worsen. This affects their wellbeing of course, but can also impact the wellbeing of their family. This will also have implications for patient safety: higher rates of sickness absence and staff turnover place additional strain on already weakened health services, which in turn affects patient outcomes.

We know that help-seeking is impacted in large part by the perceived stigma of mental health difficulties or work stress within health services. Support from family and friends is preferred to professional help by many, often because of the perceived career implications and reputational damage.

This is why the hubs are so important, – they provide confidential and independent mental health support – i.e. independent of their employer, colleagues and professional bodies. Our own research has shown that this is precisely the kind of discreet service that highly stressed health professionals need and want – a service which invites mental health help-seeking without the threat of stigma, reputational damage and career risk that so many health professional are concerned about.

Dr Niall Galbraith is a Reader in Health Psychology and Head of the Centre for Psychological Research at the University of Wolverhampton.

Read more about the campaign to #FundNHSHubs

References and extra reading

Galbraith, N., Boyda, D., McFeeters, D., & Galbraith, V. (2021). Patterns of occupational stress in police contact and dispatch personnel: implications for physical and psychological health. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 94(2), 231-241.

Galbraith, N., Boyda, D., McFeeters, D., & Hassan, T. (2020). The mental health of doctors during the Covid-19 pandemic. BJPsych bulletin, 1-4.

Hassan, T., Tran, T., Doan, N., Mazhar, M., Bajaj, N., Munshi, T., ... & Groll, D. (2016). Attitudes of Canadian psychiatry residents if mentally ill: awareness, barriers to disclosure, and help-seeking preferences. Canadian medical education journal, 7(2), e14-e24. ISSN 1923-1202

Galbraith, N. D., Brown, K. E., & Clifton, E.  (2014). A survey of student nurses' attitudes toward help-seeking for stress. Nursing Forum. doi: 10.1111/nuf.12066. ISSN:1744-6198.

Hassan, T. M., Sikander, S., Mazhar, N., Munshi, T., Galbraith, N., & Groll, D. (2013). Canadian psychiatrists' attitudes to becoming mentally ill. British Journal of Medical Practitioners,6(2), a619. ISSN 1757-8515. 

Galbraith, N. D., & Brown, K. E. (2011). Assessing intervention effectiveness for reducing stress in student nurses: A quantitative systematic review. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 67(4), 709-721. ISSN: 0309-2402.

Hassan, T. M., Ahmed, O., White, A. C., & Galbraith, N. D. (2009) A postal survey of doctors' attitudes to becoming mentally ill. Clinical Medicine, 9(4), 327-332. ISSN: 1470 2118.

White, A. C., Shiralkar, P., Hassan, T. M., Galbraith, N. D., & Callaghan, R. (2006). Barriers to mental health care for ill psychiatrists. Psychiatric Bulletin, 30, 382-384.