MHM Magazine

Issue 4 | 2025 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 13 MHM It’s a routine Saturday morning - I’m sitting in my office, looking at the snowflakes dropping outside my window. As I sip on my cup of Earl Grey tea preparing my psyche for a busy day of managing an on-call shift on an acute care psychiatry floor, I’m suddenly washed over by grief. A very similar Saturday a year ago, I was saying goodbye to my father as he was being taken off life support in the intensive care unit after suffering a massive posterior myocardial infarction and ending up with a cardiac arrest at the very young age of 62. The year has been nothing short of trying, a year of firsts. I’ve often read about grief and memorised the DSM-V criteria for bereavement for the multitude of exams in my residency training. The experience is nothing like the books say, and I know the deep pain and sadness that I have endured has helped me become a better clinician. The road to becoming a physician encompasses mastering medical knowledge and clinical skills, and also learning how to be compassionate and provide empathic care. As a psychiatrist in practice for close to a decade, I thought I was an empathic clinician. However, I now know I was wrong. Losing my father - painful and vulnerable as By Dr. Devina Wadhwa Psychiatrist Northern Ontario, and in Nunavut devinamaya@gmail.com HOW GRIEF TRANSFORMED A PSYCHIATRIST’S APPROACH TO PATIENT CARE MHM | 2025 | Volume 12 | Issue 4 | How grief transformed a psychiatrist’s approach to patient care MHM