Medical schools' responsibilities in improving students' mental health.

Abstract

Letter to the EditorMedical schools’ responsibilities in improving students’ mental healthBea DuricBea DuricKing’s College London, GKT School of Medical Education, London, United KingdomPublished Online:15 Dec 2022https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00240.2022MoreSectionsPDF (142 KB)Download PDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesGet permissionsTrack citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInWeChat I thank Abraham et al. (1) for their insightful work regarding admissions committee members’ biases toward mental health conditions. Mental health problems are a rising and rampant concern in the medical workforce, with medical students experiencing significantly higher rates of anxiety, depression, and burnout than their nonmedical peers (2). It was a relief to see that reporting mental health conditions on medical school applications was not stigmatized by committee members in this study and that demonstrating proactive steps toward recovery from mental illness was sometimes viewed positively. Erasing the stigma associated with mental health is a building block in encouraging better access to treatment and in humanizing doctors by recognizing that the subject of their expertise does not make them immune from health concerns.Though I appreciate and agree that stigmatization prevents students from disclosing their mental health problems, I believe that poor and inadequate access to mental health services during the university years is perhaps a more pertinent predictor of students’ reluctance to seek help. As a medical student at King’s College London, I know that the faculty has taken steps to provide a safe space for students to address concerns regarding their mental well-being, including Balint groups, mental health workshops, and weekly drop-in sessions with faculty members. Consequently, it is easier to have difficult conversations about mental health and most students I have spoken to said that they do not feel any stigma or shame from the medical college itself in addressing their needs. However, many students have noted the poor quality of these workshops and drop-ins with faculty, mentioning that they are often given vague answers and little concrete support for their worries. Furthermore, nearly all of our support and welfare services are located on our central campus, making them inaccessible to students situated in London’s peripheral areas. Students have also complained about incredibly long waiting times for an initial counseling consultation, with counselors only being able to offer the first five or six sessions for free and most students being unable to afford private therapy. The faculty is also extremely reluctant to offer mitigating exam circumstances and extensions to students in an acute mental crisis, encouraging us instead to “toughen up” and get on with it. University mental health support was especially subpar during the COVID-19 pandemic with complaints about a complete lack of guidance and communication relating to navigating emotional, physical, and financial worries.This overall lack of trust in the establishment and the belief that good quality care is either inaccessible or expensive have been the key reasons for students failing to disclose their mental illness rather than perceived stigma from faculty, at least at King’s College.In conclusion, though I agree with the authors’ findings that assuring students of the declining stigma of disclosing mental illness is hugely important, I believe that providing adequate access to treatment and therapy will be a bigger motivator for them to communicate their struggles. I applaud the authors for their excellent work and encourage them to continue their research in addressing the medical community’s mental health crisis.DISCLOSURESNo conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the authors.AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONSB.D. conceived and designed research; B.D. analyzed data; B.D. interpreted results of experiments; B.D. drafted manuscript; B.D. edited and revised manuscript; B.D. approved final version of manuscript.REFERENCES1. Abraham AE, Busch CA, Brownell SE, Cooper KM. Should I write about mental health on my med school app? Examining medical school admissions committee members’ biases regarding mental health conditions. Adv Physiol Educ 46: 526–539, 2022. doi:10.1152/advan.00094.2022. Link | Google Scholar2. Mehta SS, Edwards ML. Suffering in silence: mental health stigma and physicians’ licensing fears. Am J Psychiatry Residents’ J 13: 2–4, 2018. doi:10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2018.131101.Crossref | Google ScholarAUTHOR NOTESCorrespondence: B. Duric (bea.[email protected]ac.uk). Download PDF Previous Back to Top FiguresReferencesRelatedInformation Related ArticlesShould I write about mental health on my med school app? Examining medical school admissions committee members’ biases regarding mental health conditions 16 Sep 2022Advances in Physiology Education More from this issue > Volume 47Issue 1March 2023Pages 42-42 Crossmark Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 2023 the American Physiological Society.https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00240.2022PubMed36519793History Received 28 November 2022 Accepted 28 November 2022 Published online 15 December 2022 Published in print 1 March 2023 Metrics