#51: How to Heal a Moral Injury – Helping Healthcare Workers Heal Mental Wounds in the Aftermath of Coronavirus with Dr Dominic Murphy
5th May 2020
In today’s episode I talk to Head of Research at Combat Stress - Dr Dominic Murphy.
Combat Stress are the UKs leading charity for veterans’ mental health. For a century they have been helping former servicemen and women deal with issues like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression.
Today they provide specialist treatment and support for veterans from every service and conflict to give them hope and a future.
I think it would be a pragmatic choice to start discussing the mental implications of COVID- 19 on healthcare workers that have not only witnessed events but may have been involved in some huge decisions that challenge our moral code.
I’m sure that you will find our discussion today really interesting and thought provoking.
On the podcast, we talk about:
- Dominic’s work as a Clinical Psychologist and PTSD with war veterans
- The extent of PTSD and predisposing factors
- What is a moral injury?
- The relationship between moral injury and PTSD
- Why look at moral injury - why do some people not respond well to gold standard treatments for PTSD
- What are we doing in the UK to explore moral injury
- Is moral injury relevant during the current COVID-19 crisis?
- Preventative measures with food, alcohol and exercise
- The prevalence of PTSD before the pandemic and what needs to change in both the culture of medicine and access to care
Please do be sure to check out the Combat Stress website where they have some fantastic resources and support available and also look up their social media pages - links below.
You’ll also find links below to the papers that Dominic and I discussed on the podcast.
Episode guests
Dominic earned his doctorate at KCL exploring vaccinations and medically unexplained symptoms in military personnel in 2010. Dominic then trained as a Clinical Psychologist and completed his clinical doctorate at Royal Holloway University in 2013.nIn 2013, Dominic joined Combat Stress (a national veterans mental health charity in the UK) where he established and now leads a research department specialising in veteran’s mental health. The Combat Stress research department is co-located within the KCMHR where Dominic continues to be a member.nDominic is part of the Forces in Mind Trust mental health steering group, editor for a number of journals and member of several international military mental health research consortiums.nIn 2019, he was elected the President of the UK Psychological Trauma Society (UKPTS) and onto the executive board of the European Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ESTSS).nDominic has specialised clinically and academically within the field of PTSD and military mental health and is widely published with over 100 articles to date.n nReferences that we discuss on the podcast:nNature reviews and Brain food https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805706/nFood and PTSD http://www.ptsdassociation.com/nutritionalnOmega 3 and Psychological health https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3590222/nPrevalence of PTSD amongst healthcare workers https://www.rcog.org.uk/en/news/bjog-study-highlights-prevalence-of-ptsd-among-obstetricians-and-gynaecologists/
References/sources
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