Published 9/30/24
that physicians鈥 commitment to care for those who are ill includes physicians caring for one another. ACP supports recommendations from the Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) , evaluating whether it is necessary to ask probing questions about mental health, addiction, or substance use, particularly in the applicant's past. A description of the types of .
ACTION:
State Licensure Action
Connect through your聽ACP chapter聽to work with organizations and state medical boards to change inappropriate medical licensing questions about receiving mental health care or having a mental health diagnosis.
- Example/Template Letter聽Connect through your聽ACP chapter聽 to Contact Your Medical Board to Change or Remove Inappropriate Mental Health Questions on Medical License Applications鈥
- Example/Template PowerPoint聽Connect through your聽ACP chapter聽to Make the Case to Change or Remove聽Inappropriate Mental Health Questions on Medical License Applications鈥
- Contact Your ACP Chapter Leadership听听
- Work with your chapter to聽鈥
- Work with your chapter to聽鈥
Institution Level Action
Work with your leadership or organization to change inappropriate credentialing application questions about receiving mental health care or having a mental health diagnosis.
- Example/Template Letter聽to Share with Your Organization to Change or Remove Inappropriate Mental Health Questions on Credentialing Applications
- Example/Template PowerPoint聽to Make the Case to Change or Remove Inappropriate Mental Health Questions on Credentialing Applications
Background
This toolkit is intended to serve as a resource for physicians and to help remove any potential stigma about receiving mental health care or having a mental health diagnosis, that may result in physicians not receiving care.
State medical boards set the rules and requirements for obtaining a medical license, assuring that clinicians meet standards for education, training, and professional conduct. Physicians must disclose information that may affect their ability to practice, such as malpractice awards and criminal convictions. This might also include health status information.
ACP states in that physician impairment can be left untreated and that 鈥淧hysicians may avoid seeking medical help because they fear loss of confidentiality and privacy, loss of livelihood, or the appearance of vulnerability or because they deny or subordinate their personal needs to practice demands and therefore do not recognize the impairment. The stigma of addiction and mental illness added to the concern that diagnosis may lead to professional liability or loss of licensure can compel physicians to suffer in silence and delay seeking help.鈥
Recently, ACP adopted a resolution advocating for 鈥渕odernization of state licensure practices that focuses more on the functional impact of mental health diagnoses in physicians and limits additional administrative requirements so that it does not isolate prior or current mental health considerations from other medical considerations in the reporting process.鈥 ACP鈥檚 position paper says that 鈥淚n keeping with the focus on functional impact, ACP recommends that licensure questions address current status rather than past history, not distinguish between mental and physical health, and elicit objective information about functional status.鈥
Please contact acpwellbeing@acpprograms.org or submit a with questions or for additional resources.
References
According to a study published as a research letter in May 2021 by JAMA.