Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. We have to talk about it because research suggests that medical students are at risk for mental health concerns. This truth is not without hope. There are many things you can do to reduce your risk, and improve your mental health throughout your training. One of the most important things that you can do is to be aware of your own wellness, and what you need to maintain it. Recognizing when you are becoming unwell will aid you with reaching out for support, as needed.
Another way you can keep tabs on your mental health is to self assess. Online screening is one of the quickest and easiest ways to determine whether you are experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition. Use this for yourself or share it with someone you care about. Mental Health America provides screening tools for depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
Below you will find wellness programs, information, and opportunities. As always, I encourage you to engage in the things that work best for you.
Well-being Link: Skill-Building
Research is clear: Happiness, resilience, connection, and kindness are skills that can be taught and developed over time—with practice. That’s why UC Berkeley launched Greater Good in Action. Synthesizing hundreds of scientific studies, they collected the best research-based methods for a happier, more meaningful life—and put them at your fingertips in a format that's easy to navigate and digest.
Wellness Podcast
This episode addresses mental health, burnout, depression, and suicide. Hosts Toni Gallo and associate editor Dr. John Coverdale and guests Drs. Christopher Veal and Richard Page,discuss medical student mental health, the barriers to students and physicians seeking treatment and disclosing their distress, and how medical schools can better support students to preserve their mental health. Dr. Veal starts the conversation by telling the story of his mental health journey as a medical student. Read the article discussed in this episode at academicmedicine.org: We Burn Out, We Break, We Die: Medical Schools Must Change Their Culture to Preserve Medical Student Mental Health. A transcript of this episode is available at academicmedicineblog.org.
Preserving Medical Student Mental Health - Academic Medicine Podcast
Mental Health Association of Rhode Island
The Mental Health Association of Rhode Island seeks to promote and nourish mental health through advocacy, education, and policy development. The Mental Health Association of Rhode Island has a variety of events during the month of May.
Visit their website to learn more
Bridging the Gaps Conference
The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Rhode Island’s Bridging the Gaps Annual Conference brings together heroes and allies in the mental health community to discuss the issues side-by-side with peers, family members, mental health professionals, advocates, legislators, volunteers, and friends. This year, the Bridging the Gaps conference will be held virtually on May 25, 2022. NAMI Members attend for free. $10 for non-members.
LifeSpan Mental Health Month Panel
Join us for a free virtual forum, featuring panelists who bring various perspectives to this important conversation about mental health, seeking help when you need it, and fighting the stigmas associated with mental illness. It’s okay to not be okay.
Wellness Activities
Check out the Wellness Calendar. There you will find meditations organized by Med^2, wellness workshops hosted by SHC, and Self-Care Sundays journal prompts submitted by Becca Berube. Please reach out to our student group leaders if you have any questions or want to be involved.
Wellness App
Medical School wellness programs and updates are located in this one location. Follow this link on a mobile device to install: https://my.yapp.us/F6K2BP. Note: Additional directions are online. The app ID is F6K2BP.
Community Resources
Remember that you are not alone!
You have a community of support that includes:
- Peer Support via Student Health Council (studenthealthcoucil@brown.edu)
- Medical School CAPS Therapist - Laurice Girouard, LICSW (laurice_girouard@brown.edu)
- The opportunity to check on your wellness or consult with Dr. Holder.
A Poem - This Is Your Time, by William Ayott
This is your time
For frosty mornings in towns you will never know,
For resentful receptionists and chirpy secretaries,
For flipcharts and outcomes, for plans and reports,
For too much coffee and too many words.
This is your time.
This is your time
For dressing in the dark and cars to the airport.
For planes and trains and railway stations;
For loneliness, for grief, for embracing doubt,
For keeping hard secrets in the face of love.
This is your time.
This is your time
For being what your people need you to be,
For managing fear while showing calm,
For being their mother, for being their father,
For holding the line, or the hope, or the dream.
This is your time.
This is your time
For sudden sunlight breaking through the overcast,
For sweet green spaces in concrete canyons;
For the care of strangers, for anonymous gifts,
For learning to receive little acts of kindness.
This is your time.
This is your time.
For standing to be counted, for being yourself,
For becoming the sum and total of your life,
For finding courage, for finding your voice,
For leading, because you are needed now.
This is your time