Family Physician Raising Mental Health Awareness by Sharing Own Story: Live Discussion this Sunday
Join the Ohio AFP for the next Bite-Sized Learning Session on Sunday, August 16, at 6 p.m. (MDT) live on the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians (OAFP) Facebook page.
Moderated by OAFP President Mike Sevilla, MD, this week’s session will feature Kyle Bradford Jones, MD, FAAFP, a family physician at Neurobehavior HOME Program and associate professor at the University of Utah Department of Family Preventive Medicine in Salt Lake City, UT.
Dr. Jones recently published the book Fallible: A Memoir of a Young Physician’s Struggle with Mental Illness. Through authoring this book and participating in conversations and presentations like the Bite-Sized Learning program, Dr. Jones hopes to dispel the stigma of talking about mental illness, especially in the family physician community.
“Doctors, in general, are good at hiding things like this…Even if you’re really struggling and things are going poorly, you’re taught that it doesn’t matter what you’re feeling. You’ve got to keep going and take care of the patient.”
Dr. Jones first went public with his mental illness in a blog post for the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2014. “I had been thinking about it for a little while; however, it also came from the realization that my experiences were not unique,” Dr. Jones says of mental illness among medical professionals. “Having seen fellow residents, faculty, and colleagues, and seeing the effects of burnout and other things on them, showed me that it [wasn’t] just me. This is a bigger problem, and we should be talking about it a lot more.”
- Kyle Bradford Jones Blog
- Fallible Book Trailer
- “How Your Mind Can Turn against You” – post on KevinMD.
Dr. Jones will share with us his story of recognizing his own mental illness and the importance of continuing this conversation to dispel the stigma surrounding mental illness.
This series of Bite-Sized Learning Sessions has been created to serve as an opportunity for members to come together during a time when connecting and learning from each other is crucial. Join family physician presenters as they share their story of family medicine, a practice pivot, or a newfound joy during the COVID-19 pandemic.