Wellness4MDs

Within a complex healthcare system medical professionals are being pushed to the limit.

The Mental Health Foundation is proud to partner with Wellness4MDs, a text based service providing support for medical professionals.

Many physicians are experiencing high levels of burnout, anxiety and depression. While they are dedicated to delivering exceptional patient care, medical staff often don’t seek care for themselves or prioritize their psychological well-being.

On Feb. 12, 2024, Dr. Agyapong and his teams from the University of Alberta and Dalhousie University launched Wellness4MDs, to help make mental health support accessible for busy physicians, postgraduate medical trainees, and medical students. This free service provides subscribers with daily supportive text messages that use cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mental health literacy information tailored for physicians. Over time, this helps build resilience and improves psychological wellness.

Wellness4MDs is bite-sized therapy sent directly to a physician’s phone. The messages have been developed by psychiatrists, mental health therapists, clinical psychologists, and mental health service users. This approach saves valuable time and eliminates the cost of traditional therapy sessions. The program is available in English and French and participation is anonymous.

CBT works to help disrupt negative patterns of thinking, shifting thoughts to more constructive, healthy ones. It is one of the most effective treatments for substance abuse and mental health disorders.

TEXT “WELLMD” to 1-855-947-4673 to subscribe

Wellness4MDs works on any cell phone and is free of charge.

Dr. Agyapong and his partners expect that long-term outcomes could include lower rates of absenteeism due to stress and burnout, reduced physician turnover, reduced medical errors in clinical practice, and better patient safety and satisfaction.

Dr. Vincent Agyapong is head of the Department of Psychiatry at Dalhousie University and clinical professor at the University of Alberta’s Department of Psychiatry.

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With Wellness4MDs, you receive CBT messages six months at a time, so rather than going to your therapist and receiving one dose of intervention, you are only receiving a portion of that and the next day you receive another, and so on. The effects are cumulative, and progressively it helps people to shift away from negative patterns of thinking and begin to think more positively.

Dr. Vincent Agyapong

Professor of Global Mental Health

Wellness4MDs is supported in partnership with