LAGOM was founded because of a deeply personal pain point that resonated with each of us. As healthcare students and professionals, we entered this profession to advocate for compassionate healthcare that is accessible for all. Caring for patients is indeed the heart of medicine and it is a privilege to be able to help and serve people while they’re the most vulnerable.
What we didn’t realise was that it came at a cost and we were never taught how to put on the training wheels and were expected to hit the ground running when dealing with uncertain environments and challenges.
COVID-19 only precipitated the social (FOMO), emotional (widespread pain, suffering and loss of patients, colleagues and loved ones), financial (economical losses, inflation, budget cuts) and physical burdens HCPs were forced to face as the world had to learn how to breathe through N95 masks, stuffy PPE equipment and survive shifts without meeting basic human needs of food, water and sanitation for hours at a time.
Numerous studies have shown the high rates of burnout and depression among doctors. An oft cited statistic notes that the suicide rate among physicians was the highest among any occupation (something they never warned us about BEFORE we entered medical school), and another study found that more than one in four medical students experienced depression or depressive symptoms. One study said that nearly one in two residents experience burnout symptoms. Help-seeking behaviour is notoriously low, HCPs might not register with a general practitioner because of frequent moves due to jobs, are reluctant to disclose symptoms, and fear the stigma and career consequences of admitting illness.
“I treat sickness; I don't get sick myself” is a pervasive, and damaging, concept. Mental ill health is more common in doctors than in other professional groups, with high rates of anxiety and depression, suicide (especially in women), burnout, and substance misuse, including alcohol and benzodiazepines.
We are not infallible, 12-14hour shifts are burning us out, the grief of a patient does strike a chord in our own hearts too.
We are Human First.
We get sick too
For so long our healthcare community has suffered in silence. We have shouldered the burdens of a system that doesn’t have sufficient beds for those at its doors. We have suffered the grief of losing strangers and losing our very own. We have nightmares of not living up to society’s expectations. We are exhausted.
Do we really need to suffer alone?
Let’s stop being another statistic and take the onus for our mental health, together.
We envision a world where healthcare professionals should not have to choose between saving themselves and serving their patients.
Our organisation aims to adopt the very essence of Lagom (not too much, not too little, just the right amount) into the chaotic midst of the mental health situation amongst healthcare workers by reframing how mental wellbeing among Healthcare Professionals is viewed, that mental health conditions should be treated with the gravity as we do any other medical condition, and not as a character flaw or a sign of weakness.
It’s common understanding that the phrase ‘mental health’ often connotes stigma and prejudice, especially when healthcare workers themselves struggle with it. Additionally, there is plenty of red tape and bureaucratic measures that discourage help-seeking behaviour in the first place among those who are willing to outstretch their arms for support.
And so the journey starts with taking one step - educating ourselves and those around us on how to approach this sensitive topic with empathy, provide tailored resources, strategies and tips for acute psychiatric interventions to help our patients, to help our colleagues, to help ourselves with a human-centric focus, and to have each others’ backs every step of the way.
MISSION –
• Create a conscious community of Healthcare Professionals in the mental health space
• Raise awareness and foster a culture that gives the same importance and gravity to psychiatric illnesses as physical illnesses
• Educate and equip ourselves with acute, life-saving psychiatric interventions to better help our patients, our colleagues & ourselves.
VISION –
• Curate educational resources to develop a course that would be mandatory for all healthcare professionals to be equipped to provide a holistic psychiatric analysis in all patient assessments
• Destigmatise mental illnesses especially in the Healthcare Community
• Build a better world that is inclusive, kind and empathetic to all healthcare professionals in the LAGOM Family, regardless of man-made borders and other societal categorisations.
Thank you for joining us on this revolutionary journey to create a conscious community of healthcare professionals, where we learn to heal ourselves.