Know Me! – AMSA-Austria

Name of the activity: Know Me!

Country/NMO: AMSA Austria

Program: Mental Health

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Education

Focus area: Mental Health promotion and Prevention, Mental Health advocacy and public awareness, Mental Health among Medical Students

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being)

General description:

Know Me! aims to provide a variety of actions concerning the topic of mental health, especially studying-related mental health issues. Among the planned actions are social media activities, professional lectures and the organization of a mental health week including academic, relaxation and movie offers.

Problem statement:

The challenges that medical students face in their academic career can lead to anxiety, stress and depression (Shah et al 2021, Depression, Anxiety and Stress among First-year Medical Students in a Tertiary Care Hospital). We believe that both addressing this topic and offering a variety of resources (lectures, relaxation events) can help students cope with these issues. Many events will be open to a broader audience but based on common psychological issued associated with academic careers.

Target groups:

• General population
• Medical students
• Other Students

Beneficiaries:

• General population
• Medical students
• Other Students
• Doctors
• Other health professionals

Objectives:

– create mental health awareness posts (at least 1/month) for social media.

– organize a mental health buddy system, putting participants in groups of 2 in order to have somebody to talk to about mental health related issues -> establish platform until July 23

– organize at least one professional lecture on a mental health topic per participating city, including discussion floor (mental health week, target week: May 8-12 ’23)

– organize at least one mental health related leisure activity for students per participating city (yoga course, watching mental health-associated movie; late spring 23)

Indicators:

– Posts: Number of likes/comments received

– buddy system: number of participants

– lectures: Number of attendees + Rating after attendance (between 1 and 10)

– mental health related leisure activities: Number of participants + Rating after attendance (enjoyment, subjective benefit to mental health, on a scale between 1 and 10)

Methodology:

– initial planning until Jan 31st, regular posting and event planning starting from Feb 1st, buddy system launch on April 1st, events running from May 8-12 – team: consisting of multiple SCs (currently Innsbruck and Vienna, 8 designated members of the organization committee). More members to be included for local projects – Potential partners include the Ärztekammer, the Votiv-Kino (potentially changing) in Vienna, and the Psychological Student Consultation organization. – Know me serves as a national level of coordinating many local events; risk management includes counter-checking each others projects and regular evaluation – Project aims to be resource-friendly with minimal to no print; digital and word-of-mouth communication are prioritized. AMSA Austria seeks to find sustainable sponsorships (e.g. Makava beverage company, former coop partner) for food/drink requirements during events.

Plans for evaluation:

The several elements will be evaluated separately. At the end of the events and the buddy system, participants will be asked to self-evaluate. We plan to establish a questionnaire in order to keep annual track of mental health changes in the students.

External collaborations:

We are currently working on several partnerships, however, they are not fixed as of Jan 14th. Target partners include: – Ärztekammer Wien (1-2 lectures on mental health topics provided by associated doctors) – Makava (beverages for events) – Psychologische Studienberatung Wien (2-3 lectures on mental health topics) – Votivkino Wien (cinema viewing of MH related movie, e.g. 2018 US documentary “Stress”, with follow-up discussion under lead from our university prof.)