Welcome back. It has been a while, but it should be worth it.

In this episode, we speak with Dame Clare Gerada who has played many roles within the NHS, including the president and chair of the Royal College of General Practice, along with setting up the Practitioner Health Program, which provides doctors and senior clinicians with confidential mental health support.

We discuss her career, the changing primary care landscape, moral injury, compassion fatigue and burnout, cognitive reframing, why doctors need specialist mental health services and why - despite the challenges - she still feels general practice is a deeply rewarding vocation.

If you have found this episode interesting, go listen to our previous ones.

Please consider donating. There are lots of costs associated with producing this podcast, and I really want to avoid industry sponsorship.

Books:

The Handbook of Physician Mental Health

Beneath the White Coat

Further Links:

The Practitioner Health Program

You can find out more about Balint groups here

The article on Moral Injury we mentioned

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Welcome back to the Still Practising Podcast with Dr James Fish.

Most people enter caring professions because they want to help others, especially those who are suffering. This compassionate motivation may be the most important human drive, especially when facing the multiple crises of modernity. But what do we understand about compassion?

Prof Paul Gilbert OBE is a clinical psychologist who works at the University of Derby and has researched, developed and delivered Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT) and Compassionate Mind Training to many. He is arguably the biggest populariser of compassion approaches and has helped us address many questions, including:

How is compassion different to sympathy or empathy?

How can we develop compassion?

What about compassion fatigue?

How do environments prevent compassion?

How does mindfulness support compassion?

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RESOURCES:

The Compassionate Mind by Paul Gilbert

Mindful Compassion by Paul Gilbert

Julien Abel

Schwartz Rounds

Nancy Eisenberg

https://www.compassionatemind.co.uk/

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This project has no regular funding and I don't plan to advertise. If you found this episode interesting and helpful please consider donating:

www.stillpractising.org/donate

If you are a clinician who would like to meditate with others then come to our Online Meditation Group.

Want to stay up to date then join our Mailing List

You can always ping us an email with any thoughts or ideas to hello@stillpractising.org

Welcome to the first-ever episode of the Still Practising podcast with me, Dr James Fish. I'm a GP in East Sussex and a Mindfulness Teacher.

We are very lucky to start off by talking to Professor Roger Neighbour OBE. Roger was a prolific educationalist who coined the term safetynetting and wrote many books that are compulsory reading for general practitioners. He has also practiced Zen Buddhism since his houseman days in the 1970s. We discuss wide ranging topics relevant to those who work in the caring professions including 'big picture' medicine, coping with the inevitable trauma of our vocations and the role that meditation can play.

I really hope you enjoy our conversation and find it as helpful as I did.

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Links to books we discussed:

Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki

A Fortunate Woman by Polly Morland

Roger's books:

Inner Physician

Inner Consultation

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Want to stay up to date then join our Mailing List

If you are a clinician who would like to meditate with others then come to our Online Meditation Group.

You can always ping us an email with any thoughts or ideas to hello@stillpractising.org