VICDOC Winter 2022 - Magazine - Page 27
C
heryl Wile always knew
she was going to help
people. Her mother
engaged with strangers
compassionately, warmly greeting
homeless people when out and
about, and always spoke to Cheryl
about the need to help vulnerable
members of the community. It left
a powerful impression on Cheryl,
who sought to act with the same
spirit of humanity in her own life.
When she was just ten
years old, Cheryl came across
an advertisement in a church
newsletter for soup van volunteers.
She eagerly rang the organisers
but was politely advised that she
would need to wait another 8 years
to be eligible to assist. Although
disappointed, she didn’t give up.
“I knew even then that helping
people was what I wanted to do.
I didn’t know how but that’s what
I want to do in life,” says Cheryl.
Decades later, after working
as a forensic psychologist and
subsequently, in drug and alcohol
rehabilitation, Cheryl spotted
another advertisement. This one
was looking for a ‘case manager’ to
work with the Victorian Doctors’
Health Program (VDHP); today,
a well-established, free and
confidential service for doctors
and medical students who have
concerns about their well-being.
She successfully applied and joined
the fledging organisation in 2002
to assist the service’s first medical
director, Dr Jack Warhart.
As VDHP’s senior psychologist,
Cheryl has worked with the
organisation for twenty years
and was recently recognised at
the 2022 AMA Victoria Awards
Night with an AMA Victoria
Service Award. The experiences
and unique insights she has gained
from supporting doctors over two
decades are invaluable and ones
that she is more than willing
to share.
I AM HUMAN.
––
The hardest step in anybody’s
recovery is asking for help. It
can be particularly difficult for
doctors who are high achievers and
identify with being the healthcare
giver, rather than a healthcare
receiver. Cheryl says doctors can
feel deep shame, isolation and
anxiety when they experience
stress or burnout, or if they have a
mental health or substance abuse
issue. Cheryl says while asking for
help can be extremely difficult,
it’s an important and positive first
step. “Doctors will say to us, ‘I’m
a doctor. I’m not meant to feel
burnt out or depressed.’ We
gently challenge that thinking.
We remind them that before being
a doctor, they are a human being
and no less susceptible to the array
of human emotions and conditions
than the rest of us. Many of the
doctors we help have heard that
internal niggle whispering that
something is not right but they
have kept pushing forward. Over
time, that whisper turns into a roar,
so much so that by the time some
doctors connect with VDHP,
they are quite progressed in
their illness.”
Cheryl says the VDHP team
takes time to remind doctors
that they need to be okay to do
the work they do and to be able
to successfully execute all the
other roles they have in their lives
such as being a parent, a sibling,
a friend, a son or daughter, or a
colleague. “We reassure them, and
they come to permit themselves
to ‘not be okay’. We then stand
by and support them and provide
them with the scaffolding they
need through that journey.”
I AM NOT ALONE.
––
Every human being is unique
but human experience, emotions,
feelings and struggles are not
unique at all. Recognising that
the human experience is shared,
and that pain and struggle is a
part of the human condition, is an
important step. It opens the space
internally required to connect to
one’s struggles, to seek appropriate
support and comfort from others
and to heal. Someone has always
been there before you; someone is
always experiencing it with you and
crucially, someone is always there
to help.
Cheryl says many doctors take
time to recognise this and initially
feel alone and reticent to ask for
help. “They’re managing these
big workloads and they become
convinced that everyone else is
managing fine. Doctors will say,
“I just didn’t imagine I’d need to
call. This has never happened to
me. Everyone else is managing.
Why can’t I?” We remind them
that VDHP is a full-time program
including after-hours and is solely
set up for Victorian doctors and
medical students, so there is a lot of
demand for our service. That gives
them an idea of just how many
doctors feel just like they do.”
VI CD O C WI NTER 2022
27