Beneath the White Coat

Dr Clare Gerada has been a medical practitioner since 1982. Having first trained in psychiatry she became a GP in 1992, and has worked in the same practice ever since. She has been heading up a groundbreaking service for sick doctors (practitioner-patients) since 2008 which has rapidly become an international leader. Between 2010-2013 she led the Royal College of General Practitioners, the largest of all the of Royal Colleges, and only the second women to hold this Office in its history.

Acknowledgements. Contributors. Preface. THE MAKING OF A DOCTOR. The making of a doctor: medical self and group of belonging. Mental illness in doctors: an historical context. What makes medicine such a difficult task master and doctors at. higher risk of mental illness?. Rising levels of mental illness, fact or fiction?. Surviving and thriving in medicine. Resilience. Shame in medicine. Suffering, sacrifice and stigma. DOCTORS AND THEIR ILLNESSES. Doctors and mental illness: an overview. Doctors and substance misuse disorder. Autism in doctors. Burnout in doctors. Suicide in doctors and its sequelae. Bipolar disorder and other psychotic states. COVID-19 and mental illness. DOCTORS AS PATIENTS. Doctors as patients. Doctors treating doctors. The doctors’ doctor. How to be a good enough patient: from sickness to health. Services for mentally ill doctors. The migrant doctor. Medical students. Different specialities and risk of mental illness. Talking helps. WHEN THINGS GO WRONG. Sticking to the rules: professional and unprofessional behaviour. Making sense of the regulatory process. Improving the outcome of a serious investigation. Index.