Psychological PPE: Peer support beyond COVID-19

Issue: BCMJ, vol. 62, No. 4, May 2020, Page 139 News COVID-19
By: Roxanne Joyce

In response to physicians’ growing concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Physician Health Program (PHP) has launched a virtual peer-support group available to all BC physicians. Peer-to-peer connections promote shared learning, resiliency, and hope. Weekly sessions are co-facilitated by psychiatrist Dr Jennifer Russel and manager of clinical services Roxanne Joyce.

To be as accessible and physician-centred as possible, the sessions are drop-in with no commitment required. The focus is peer support, not psychiatric care, and all participants have the option to join anonymously. Conversations so far have explored wellness, work-life balance, pressures of working within COVID-19, acknowledging feelings of helplessness and anger, mindfulness, breathing strategies, working with limited PPE, and more. Many have also shared moments of joy and inspiration.

The PHP program of BC helps physicians, resident doctors, and medical students, as well as their families. When doctors and their families reach out for support, we are there to understand their situation, to support, and to advocate, both individually and collectively, as they strive to improve their mental and physical health.

We take confidentiality seriously. Your identity, personal information, and the fact you contacted us will be held in full confidence. Information pertaining to you and/or your family will be released to third parties only with your explicit consent or as required by law.

PHP is pleased to offer the weekly peer-support sessions as a permanent service. Email peersupport@physicianhealth.com for details. We also offer prompt, personalized, confidential counseling, life coaching, support, and referral services. Our intake line is open 24/7 (1 800 663-6729). Our general office line is 604 398-4300 (8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. M–F). Website: www.physicianhealth.com.
—Roxanne Joyce
Manager, Clinical Services, Physician Health Program.

Roxanne Joyce. Psychological PPE: Peer support beyond COVID-19. BCMJ, Vol. 62, No. 4, May, 2020, Page(s) 139 - News, COVID-19.


Above is the information needed to cite this article in your paper or presentation. The International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) recommends the following citation style, which is the now nearly universally accepted citation style for scientific papers:
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Caplan AL, Marion DW, Palmer AM, Schiding JK, et al. Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients. N Engl J Med. 2002;347:284-7.

About the ICMJE and citation styles

The ICMJE is small group of editors of general medical journals who first met informally in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1978 to establish guidelines for the format of manuscripts submitted to their journals. The group became known as the Vancouver Group. Its requirements for manuscripts, including formats for bibliographic references developed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), were first published in 1979. The Vancouver Group expanded and evolved into the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE), which meets annually. The ICMJE created the Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals to help authors and editors create and distribute accurate, clear, easily accessible reports of biomedical studies.

An alternate version of ICMJE style is to additionally list the month an issue number, but since most journals use continuous pagination, the shorter form provides sufficient information to locate the reference. The NLM now lists all authors.

BCMJ standard citation style is a slight modification of the ICMJE/NLM style, as follows:

  • Only the first three authors are listed, followed by "et al."
  • There is no period after the journal name.
  • Page numbers are not abbreviated.


For more information on the ICMJE Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing, and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals, visit www.icmje.org

BCMJ Guidelines for Authors

Leave a Reply