Queensland's Young Australian of the Year

AMA Queensland member and psychiatric registrar Dr Tahnee Bridson has been named Queensland’s Young Australian of the Year 2022 for her work in promoting mental health care and wellbeing for health care workers.

Dr Bridson, 29, founded Hand-n-Hand Peer Support, a free and confidential service for doctors and nurses struggling with the growing emotional burden of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What started as a four-person WhatsApp group chat 18 months ago has grown into a network of 2,500 health care workers across Australia and New Zealand, with one-on-one and group support to head off burnout and mental health issues.

In her acceptance speech, Dr Bridson said the high rates of suicide and mental health issues in doctors and other health care workers have been an unknown problem for too long.

“Having experienced difficulties myself and finding it really difficult to get help, I just wanted to make it easier, and I wanted those statistics to change, and it’s something I still want to fight for,” she said.

Dr Bridson, from Mareeba in Far North Queensland, is now in the running to be named Young Australian of the Year at the national awards, to be announced in Canberra on 25 January 2022.

You can read more about her in the Summer edition of Doctor Q.