Surgeon General Message: Mental Health Week 2022 - This Is Empathy

May 3, 2022 - Defence Stories

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Major-General Marc Bilodeau, Surgeon General, Canadian Armed Forces

Today marks the beginning of Mental Health Week 2022, with this year’s theme being This Is Empathy.

Empathy is the ability to sense the emotions of another by figuratively placing ourselves in their shoes. This enhances our ability to understand what others may think or feel in any given situation. This is a dynamic process, requires effort, and involves action, which leads to showing concern and care for others. This reciprocity makes empathy a two-way relationship between ourselves and those we interact with and care for.

For healthcare professionals, empathy is our ability to accurately recognize the emotional perspective of our patients while maintaining our own perspective as clinicians. Empathy means we need to pay attention to another person and to carefully balance our patients’ needs with our own emotional bandwidth. By doing this, Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) clinicians can avoid emotional burnout and ultimately attain optimal effectiveness and mission success. For leaders, to have empathy contributes to maintaining a healthy and safe environment where subordinates feel supported by their chain of command.

All CAF members should take care of themselves and look after one another, be cognisant of their limits, take the necessary steps to enhance personal resiliency, and ask for help when needed, particularly during high-tempo periods.

Mental health is our cognitive, behavioural and emotional well-being. When we prioritize self-care, listen to what our brain and body needs, and seek natural remedies to boost our health and mood, we increase our capacity to care for others.

This Mental Health Week, and every day following, I encourage you to practise empathy towards others and sympathy towards yourself, then observe how your mental health improves when you do.

Thank you.

Major-General Marc Bilodeau
Surgeon General, Canadian Armed Forces

For more information on mental health resources and programs within the CAF, please visit Mental health in the Canadian Armed Forces (accessible only on the National Defence network) or Canadian Armed Forces Mental Health Services.