The RCPsych Article of the Month for July is Coaching and mentoring: an overview for trainers in psychiatry’ and the blog is written by author Dr. Sarah Huline-Dickens published in BJPsych Advances

As the nation is caught up in the excitement of sporting events this month (this blog is being written on a fevered day when both tennis and football are the preoccupations of many), the focus of many participants and spectators is on performance and preparation. Coaching, and mentoring, is part of this endeavour and sport has had a strong influence on the development of coaching and mentoring approaches in training organisations and in the workplace.

Coaching and mentoring are ways of giving people time to think, and, outside the sporting arena, they are essentially both helping activities. Coaching and mentoring conversations with trainees can facilitate learning and be used to give meaningful feedback. They are not the same as training, appraisal, educational supervision, or teaching, although they may be involved in any of these activities. For this reason the use of an explicit contract, or agreement, between both parties can specify the basis of the relationship: the terms of engagement or ground rules.

It is well recognised that mentoring is helpful for the newly appointed consultant. But coaching and mentoring can be useful at other times too: for example when roles change in professional life, or when leadership skills need developing. There is now work on the importance of coaching and mentoring interventions in the support of marginalised groups such as women in academic roles or international medical graduates in the context of differential attainment. Indeed a useful toolkit is now available on the website of the London and South East Deanery to help trainers train faculty in supporting and supervising trainees from diverse cultural backgrounds using coaching and mentoring approaches.

As the pressure on services grows, so the pressure on doctors and health service colleagues grows too. Fortunately the calls to support staff are growing louder. The NHS Staff and Learners’ Mental Wellbeing Commission (HEE 2019), has recommended an NHS Workforce Wellbeing Guardian a board level role in every NHS organisation; and the GMC document Caring for Doctors Caring for Patients was based on a review co-chaired by a psychiatrist. There are 8 references to coaching within it and 9 references to mentoring, with a call to action that the culture of the health service must change and for the leadership to become more compassionate.

A wider availability of coaching and mentoring may contribute to the retention of senior workforce and to the reduction of workplace exhaustion. These approaches could also contribute to the greater attractiveness of our specialty in improving a sense of personal development, engagement and a sense of belonging. In fact it is time for coaching and mentoring to become professionalised in psychiatry. Let’s give them a sporting chance.

Mental health professions share with other jobs challenges caused by busy schedules, deadlines, difficulties in achieving a satisfactory life work balance, ever more demanding performance requests. Also, constant exposure to history of trauma, mental pain experienced by service users, and, at times, poor outcomes, can make our profession exacting.

During a particularly difficult time as an Italian consultant psychiatrist in London, I found extraordinarily helping formal mentoring sessions offered by a senior colleague. She was the best listener ever and was very encouraging. She had a fantastic ring shaped as a skull and after having talked to her outside the cafeteria drinking a coffee, I always left less anxious and empowered. Coaching and mentoring: an overview for trainers in psychiatry explains how to maximize the positive effects of these two precious tools to support professional growth and job satisfaction of colleagues.

Dr Gian Maria Galeazzi
Editorial Board member, BJPsych Advances