“Ironically enough, almost half of psychology practitioners don’t seek help when they feel intense stress, even though 18 percent reported they had suicidal ideation during stressful times, according to results of an APA survey on practitioner worries released at APA’s Annual Convention. The top five stressors identified by the survey were:

• Trying to achieve work/life balance (cited by 72 percent of respondents)
• Dealing with insurance and managed care (68 percent).
• Concerns about their patients’ safety (63 percent)
• Family issues (61 percent)
• Burnout and compassion fatigue (59 percent)

Several convention sessions examined the complex links between self-care and professional competence and discussed the importance of reducing stress and maintaining well-being. In one symposium, psychologists also spoke about the physical, emotional, ethical and clinical obstacles they tackled while battling cancer, and stressed the importance — if a practitioner intends to practice with a chronic illness — of reaching out to colleagues for support and supervision and creating flexibility with work scheduling.”

Read more highlights from convention on the 2010 APA convention blog.

Quoted from apa.org