Maureen McGrath's Health Show Podcast
Workplace Burnout: How AI is Transforming Work and Healthcare
World-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Chow joins us to tackle the critical issue of workplace exhaustion and its alarming impact on mental health. With 42% of workers feeling utterly drained after their workday, we take a hard look at the rising tide of anxiety disorders, social isolation, and the vital difference between physical and mental exhaustion. We also address the stigma surrounding mental health, especially among men, and emphasize why early recognition and intervention are crucial to preventing severe conditions like depression.
In another engaging segment, we explore how AI is revolutionizing the workplace and healthcare sectors. Learn how AI at TELUS Health is automating mundane tasks, freeing employees to focus on creativity and leadership, and even helping to bridge gender disparities through objective performance assessments. We also dive into AI’s promise in healthcare, where it streamlines administrative duties, allowing professionals to devote more time to patient care. Discover how these advancements are not just boosting productivity but also fostering a more equitable and supportive work environment.
World-renowned psychiatrist Dr. Matthew Chow joins us to tackle the critical issue of workplace exhaustion and its alarming impact on mental health. With 42% of workers feeling utterly drained after their workday, we take a hard look at the rising tide of anxiety disorders, social isolation, and the vital difference between physical and mental exhaustion. We also address the stigma surrounding mental health, especially among men, and emphasize why early recognition and intervention are crucial to preventing severe conditions like depression.
In another engaging segment, we explore how AI is revolutionizing the workplace and healthcare sectors. Learn how AI at TELUS Health is automating mundane tasks, freeing employees to focus on creativity and leadership, and even helping to bridge gender disparities through objective performance assessments. We also dive into AI’s promise in healthcare, where it streamlines administrative duties, allowing professionals to devote more time to patient care. Discover how these advancements are not just boosting productivity but also fostering a more equitable and supportive work environment.
This podcast is brought to you by Life360 Innovations, creators of the Contino urethral insert, a non-surgical Health Canada licensed medical device for men with stress urinary incontinence. Contino is easy to use and blocks the flow of urine without the need for adult diapers or pads. More than just a medical device, the Contino care program connects you with experienced medical professionals and creates a personalized treatment plan that provides ongoing support so you can get back to life. Go to MyContinocom to see if Contino is right for you and book your free continence assessment. Get bladder leakage control with Contino and get back to living. Remember, go to Mycontinocom. That's M-Y-C-O-N-T-I-N-Ocom.
Speaker 1:Ladies, do you leak with cough, sneeze and or exercise? Did you know that leaking urine is never normal? Hi, it's Maureen McGrath, registered nurse and nurse continence advisor. It's time to stop letting bladder leaks hold you back, and time to say goodbye to bladder leaks and hello to Moxie Patch, a revolutionary new device to treat stress urinary incontinence. Moxie Patch is ultra discreet, effective, reusable and eco-friendly, empowering you to live life to the fullest, free from the worries and limitations of stress urinary incontinence. With Moxie Patch, you can choose freedom from the hassle of bulky pads and embrace life again. Stop letting bladder leaks hold you back. Say goodbye to embarrassing moments and hello to unstoppable confidence with Moxie Patch. For more information or to order your Moxie Patch, go to MoxiePatchcom today and discover a new level of confidence. Moxiepatchcom, because you deserve to feel confident. Moxie patch is also available at select retailers and on amazoncom.
Speaker 1:Good evening and welcome to another episode of my Little Health Show podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in. I really appreciate it. We talk about a variety of subjects, everything from personal health to professional health, to health in the workplace, and I was very interested to see that there was a recent media release from TELUS Health that 42% of workers feel exhausted after work. An excessive workload is the leading cause of burnout. I hear this from my patients as well. It seems like there is never an end. There is no end to the workday, and whether that relates to you know technology and how we have such easy access, I'm not sure, but I have invited Dr Matthew Chow, psychiatrist and chief mental health officer at TELUS Health, to join me so we can take a deep dive into this. Good evening, dr Chow. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great, Maureen.
Speaker 1:I'm so glad to hear that. And you know I mean I. Whenever anyone asks me how are you doing, and you know we automatically go to I'm doing great. You know I'm doing really well. Thanks for asking. Fine, but oftentimes things aren't fine in people's lives. Now I'm not saying that you're not doing great, but it always makes me think like how are people really doing and how are people really doing in the workplace these days?
Speaker 2:Thanks, maureen. I think this is a great opportunity to highlight, behind the sort of the casual answers to that question that you asked me earlier, there's often some deeper material that's happening and that's what we've been seeing here at Tus Health. We survey thousands of people around the world, people that are working, and what we found is an ongoing and continuous and concerning trend, quite frankly, and that trend has started with the pandemic and seems to be continuing in this period. This particular edition of our mental health index, we call it we're highlighting, we're calling out the fact that 42% of workers are feeling exhausted after work. But this is part of an overall trend where we've seen declining mental health and well-being, increasing feelings of social isolation and loneliness and the rise of anxiety disorders as well. So all of that seems to be compounding on itself.
Speaker 1:It's just incredible, and I just wanted to point out that the TELUS Mental Health Index did also point out that it was not just physical exhaustion which is what we think about when we think of being exhausted, but it's also mental exhaustion as well, and both of these can have an impact on a person's personal life, professional life, their risk for burnout, their productivity in the workplace, and then that can actually lead to, you know, reduce profits for companies. So this is something that employers really need to pay attention to.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I'm so glad you highlighted that In some ways that psychological, that mental exhaustion is more insidious than physical exhaustion. You know, when we're physically tired, we feel it, we feel it in our bodies and we know we need to get more sleep, we need to get more rest. But psychological exhaustion and burnout um sneaks up on us, um, it can creep up on us over time. Uh, we kind of try to push it off and deny it and eventually it comes back to bite us, um and as, as it accumulates over time and it affects our uh, affects our productivity at work, it affects our relationships at home and in our communities and it affects our motivation and it can even lead to clinical disorders like depression and anxiety disorders. So absolutely something that employers and indeed all of society should be looking out for right now.
Speaker 1:And you know there's still such a stigma around mental health, whether it be in the workplace or socially. You know, oftentimes men feel like they're weak if they suffer from anxiety or depression. They don't want to share that with other people. When you're in the workplace, you're oftentimes wondering you know, how is it that everybody else is doing this and I'm having a hard time, like I'm feeling depleted and I think that's a word that we don't use often enough, because it really is a physical and a mental depletion versus a depression. People feel like they have nothing left and if every day at the end of your workday, you're feeling depleted, you're feeling exhausted, and close to half of workers are feeling mentally or physically exhausted at the end of their workday, you know how do we deal with that. I mean, we have to face it first of all, and I thank you for the TELUS Mental Health Index that has highlighted this. But how do employers contend with something like that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, part of addressing this is to acknowledge that there's a problem in the first place. There's no avoiding that in this period of time that we exist in now, there are a lot of stresses and strains on the entire workforce and interestingly, you know, part of what we discovered is that, although men absolutely face stigma around mental illness and there's still this macho culture around, you know, sucking it up and not admitting that you're, you're, you're experiencing difficulty what we found is that women were also 50 percent more likely than men to feel extremely burnt out, and that is a continuation of a trend that we've seen since the pandemic, where there, there seems to be disproportionate impact on women, and there's a lot, and there's a lot of research into why that is. Some of the preliminary work suggests that continued inequity in how work is distributed, how women continue to experience a second shift, there continues to be gender imbalances in pay, as well as recognition. Those all contribute, but at the end of the day, regardless of what the cause is, we need to acknowledge that this is real. This isn't having an impact on folks, and then how we address it is that we make sure that we are treating mental health and exhaustion and burnout just as seriously as physical health.
Speaker 2:As employers, there's a lot of things that employers can do.
Speaker 2:They can make sure that they have deployed robust mental health services and resources that are accessible to all of their workforce, and happily, I'd say, more workplaces are putting those supports in place, but there's still incomplete coverage.
Speaker 2:A lot of folks still report that they have either no awareness of mental health supports like employee assistance programs in their workplace or, even if there are, they're not adequate. They're not adequate, and so it's really important to make sure that there is mental health services support, and you know, telus Health provides something called employee assistance programs, which we've actually continuously updated over time to make sure it meets the modern needs of the workforce, so that people are able to access mental health supports and services and as well mental health supports and services and as well. I think the leadership of workplaces can also be more candid about their own experiences of mental health and well-being challenges, because I've found, even in my own workplace, that when senior leaders in particular step up and demonstrate their own vulnerability and talk about their own challenges with professional burnout and exhaustion, that gives permission to the entire workplace to be more open about their challenges and to get help.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and, I think, something as well with you know. You mentioned about women no-transcript, the menopause and that also can have an impact on women's productivity, women's, you know, exhaustion levels. They may suffer with insomnia, they may have hot flashes, night sweats, urinary incontinence issues, intimacy issues, and so I think education is so critical, and and providing the supports like TELUS Health does for their employees can only, you know, help to advance the progress in this area, because I don't think this is sustainable. I'm not sure. I mean, you're the psychiatrist.
Speaker 2:Well, let me let me strike a note of optimism here.
Speaker 2:I think that we are on the verge of a renaissance when it comes to women's health, and, you know, unfortunately, I think, it's being driven by this crisis that we have of burnout and staffing shortages, you know, especially in caring professions.
Speaker 2:You know, we see a shortage of teachers, we see a shortage of social workers, a shortage of healthcare workers, of nurses, of doctors, and many of these professions are disproportionately staffed by women, and so society's facing a choice here that you know, either we actually take women and women's health and women's well-being seriously and really address this in the workplace, or all of us will suffer as we continue to experience staffing shortages, as women pull out of the workforce, or, you know, either temporarily or permanently, or if that you know, the trend of quiet quitting which you've heard about, you know, continues, we will all suffer unless we we deal with it. So my note of optimism, though, here, is that this recognition, I think, is compelling all of us to make some significant changes, and at Telus Health, for example, one of our pillars going forward in terms of addressing well-being is actually going to be addressing women's health and women's well and, and certainly I would call upon all organizations, healthcare organizations and employers to take it as seriously as as we plan to.
Speaker 1:That is just such great news. Music to my ears, honestly, because I educate women every day about perimenopause, menopause, postmenopause. Women have very limited knowledge. Physicians aren't trained in medical school. I think about 80 um have had less than one day of training about, uh, women's health issues, which are very different, uh, from men's health issues as well, so that is just awesome yeah, 100 yeah.
Speaker 2:And it leads to, you know it leads to biases. You know the, for example, women suffer heart attacks as much as men do, but but because the symptoms are different, it gets under-recognized.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:But again, this is where increased awareness helps, education helps, but also even new innovations like artificial intelligence can help, because you can program an AI, for example, to take out that type of bias. You can program an AI, for example, to take out that type of bias, and so you can have an objective view, an assessment of someone that's experiencing a healthcare problem and hopefully reduce or eliminate some of those biases that we've typically seen.
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Speaker 2:Well, I think AI is going to be huge actually in the workplace going forward and, you know, even at TELUS we've made it an imperative for our company that everybody become familiar with AI and use AI every day. We even have contests where we try to compete with each other to see if we can use AI in a more creative way. It's going to be profoundly impactful on the workplace and 33% of workers a third of workers actually believe it will be positive, and that rises to almost half. When people think about how AI can impact healthcare, nearly half of people believe that healthcare will be positively impacted by AI and some of those impacts are going to deal, I believe, with the burnout and fatigue that folks are experiencing. A lot of that's driven by overwork. We talked about that earlier. It's the excessive workload, and AI can help a lot with those repetitive tasks, labor-intensive tasks, to help address that worker shortage. It can also act as a co-pilot to help us better at what we do.
Speaker 2:Even a concrete example even in my work, ai helps me write better emails. It helps me write better briefing notes. It helps me conduct research. It helps me write better briefing notes. It helps me conduct research. It helps me put together presentation decks. It helps me with meeting transcripts and finding out and teasing out action items. So even just in my day-to-day as a leader in our company, it helps out a lot of things. Our company, it helps out a lot of things and I've, you know, we have an AI unit in our company that's literally putting out hundreds of these new AI tools to help with all sorts of tasks all across the company that will now benefit from AI and never mind. You know the impacts that AI is going to have on things like medical research to help us find vaccines and treatments for cancer and treatments for mental health illnesses faster.
Speaker 1:Right, it's just amazing. I use AI in my work and it has. It is a time saver, it is absolutely fantastic and, and you know, you just feel a little bit more confident sending that email out. Yep.
Speaker 2:It's a, it's a. It's a lot better than the old school spell check right, it can check your grammar. It can check your tone right. It can tell you. You know, is the tone a little bit too cold here, you know, could you warm this up a little bit, Can you show?
Speaker 1:a bit of empathy.
Speaker 2:That's really neat. It literally is, as they say, a co-pilot that helps you out to help you be better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and when you feel more confident, because lack of recognition is one of the contributors to burnout and women get recognized less so than men in the workplace quite often and we've all heard about mansplaining. But you know that when you utilize AI feel like think, oh, that's a great report, and that you know you may have drafted it initially, but it's just been kind of, you know, edited and you know, finalized by AI and it's like that's great. I feel good about sending that report out. Or I feel good about email. You know it actually builds your confidence and confidence is key.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent and you know, when we look at some of those unfortunately like repetitive tasks I mentioned earlier, you know some of those disproportionately fall on women in the workplace traditionally, and so if AI can help reduce that amount of laborious kind of repetitive work, I think it allows women to to deploy their creativity and to deploy their leadership that has always been there, but be able to do that and not have that burden of those tasks. The other thing I mentioned I talked about bias in healthcare with the heart attacks. Ai can also do interesting things for us, like take an objective view of how much our. I saw a neat tool I can't remember, maybe a year or two ago where it will record a meeting and it will tell you what proportion of time women are speaking versus men are speaking.
Speaker 1:And that can help.
Speaker 2:You know it doesn't fix the gap, it doesn't fix equity, but it brings awareness to it. And so when you start measuring things like that, that can help significantly as well. And so when you have stats like we're finding, where women are 50% more likely than men to feel extremely burned out, you know that's a creative way to use AI to actually measure that and demonstrate. You know, is there a difference in workload and recognition? And let's address that because we want to value everybody in the workplace equally and give everybody a chance to contribute and to lead and to be recognized.
Speaker 1:Right, and then AI also will likely help with healthcare itself, or access to healthcare, I would imagine.
Speaker 2:Oh, 100%. That's one of the things I'm looking forward to the most as a physician. My sister, for example, is a family physician and she spends an enormous amount of time on administrative paperwork, filling out forms. It's not uncommon. She tells me that she's up until one or two in the morning filling out paperwork. But AI, not just promises, I've actually seen it deployed in ways that take away that paperwork, that automatically file reports, that automatically track referrals, that automatically generate these beautifully filled out forms. And so you know, while my preference would be, you know, if we could find a way to get rid of the forms altogether, that would probably make everybody's life a bit easier. But I recognize that in a modern environment, you know there has to be certain administrative tasks that we have to do and certain accountabilities. But AI can help tremendously with that, so that someone like my sister can spend way more time being compassionate and listening to people and being there for people in moments of vulnerability, rather than filling out forms.
Speaker 1:That's right. I was talking to a group of doctors and I said AI is going to transform healthcare and they're saying, oh no, I don't think so. You still need to lay hands on a patient. But I think that they're thinking AI is going to replace human beings. But I think it's more that AI has the potential to replace all of those onerous tasks that we have, like you described, with your sister, and I know many doctors working late into the evening completing administrative tasks. So I think we don't even know the benefits of AI. We can't even imagine how great it's going to be, and especially as it relates to motivation and burnout in the workplace.
Speaker 2:A hundred percent. And AI? You know, the growth of AI has been sneaky. As someone once pointed out to me, it's exponential, meaning that at the very beginning of the development of AI it doesn't seem like it's doing very much and then all of a sudden hockey sticks up, and that's just sort of the trend we often see in technology when new things are being developed. So, certainly in early days, there's a lot of hype, there's a lot of sort of overselling the benefits and then some disappointment, inevitably when people see that.
Speaker 2:Well, I think I saw a story recently where McDonald's pulled back its AI drive-thrus, you know, because it was, you know, only 85% accurate.
Speaker 2:But I mean, it's 85% accurate today, but tomorrow, the year after, it's probably gonna be 99, 99.5% accurate at this pace at which AI develops. But that being said, again, I I I'm not afraid of AI. I'm actually looking forward to what AI can do to help us out, especially at a time when people are burned out and there's not enough. There doesn't seem to be enough workers anywhere, not enough workers at the airport, not enough homes, you know, to make homes more affordable, not enough people working in healthcare right now, and so AI is coming in at just the right time to help us with these tasks and, like you said, it doesn't replace human touch. In fact, in the most optimistic sense, what I think AI is going to do is actually allow us to be more human and more compassionate and spend more time with each other, because we're not doing tasks that a machine could actually probably do faster and better and more accurately than we can.
Speaker 1:That's right, and we know that relationships are so important to healthy aging social relationships and so the more we can connect with people, the healthier we're going to be. Dr Chow, thank you so much for talking to me about the TELUS Mental Health Index. Where can people find out more information about or read the full Canadian TELUS Mental Health Index?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we publish that online on our TELUS Health website. We publish it monthly and we also break it down geographically so people can see what's happening in Canada, in the United States and all around the world internationally, and we do a breakdown of sort of different substats, like our mental health well-being burnout index. I'd also like to highlight that we also help workplaces with the strategy index so they can do a sort of like a mental health assessment on their workplace and see if there's anything they can do to improve the mental health and well-being of their workforce.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Kellis Health just sounds amazing to me, and I really want to thank you for your clinical expertise and your drive your personal drive to innovate in the realm of mental health care, especially because that's so important, and also in the advancement of AI. We need more voices like yours and I really appreciate you coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2:It's been a pleasure and a privilege today.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. That was Dr Matthew Chow, psychiatrist and chief mental health officer at TELUS Health. Do you have a chief mental health officer at your organization? I think you should, and I'm Maureen McGrath, and thanks so much for tuning in to my health show podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in. I'm Maureen McGrath and you have been listening to the Sunday night health show podcast. If you want to hear this podcast or any other segment again, feel free to go to iTunes, spotify or Google Play or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. You can always email me, nursetalk at hotmailcom or text the show 604-765-9287. That's 604-765-9287. Or head on over to my website for more information. Maureenmcgrathcom, it's been my pleasure to spend this time with you. This podcast is brought to you by Life360 Innovations.
Speaker 1:Creators of the Contino Urethral Insert a non-surgical, health Canada licensed medical device for men with stress urinary incontinence. Contino is easy to use and blocks the flow of urine without the need for adult diapers or pads. More than just a medical device, the Contino Care easy to use and blocks the flow of urine without the need for adult diapers or pads. More than just a medical device, the Contino Care Program connects you with experienced medical professionals and creates a personalized treatment plan that provides ongoing support so you can get back to life. Go to MyContinocom to see if Contino is right for you and book your free continence assessment. Get bladder leakage control with Contino and right for you and book your free continence assessment. Get bladder leakage control with Contino and get back to living. Remember, go to mycontinocom. That's M-Y-C-O-N-T-I-N-Ocom.
Speaker 1:Ladies, do you leak urine with cough, sneeze and or exercise? Leaking urine is never normal. Hi, I'm Maureen McGrath, registered nurse and nurse continence advisor. Ladies, it's time to stop letting bladder leaks hold you back. Say goodbye to embarrassing moments and hello to Moxie Patch, the revolutionary solution for stress urinary incontinence. Moxie Patch is ultra-discreet, effective, reusable and eco-friendly, empowering you to live life to the fullest without worries or limitations. So, ladies, ditch the bulky pads and embrace freedom with Moxie Patch. Experience unstoppable confidence today. For more information or to order your Moxie Patch, visit MoxiePatchcom. That's MoxiePatchcom, because you deserve to feel great again. Moxie Patch is also available online at select retailers and on Amazon dot com. Get your Moxie Patch today. You'll be glad you did.