Medical students’ mental health project – Estonia (EstMSA)

Name of the activity: Medical students’ mental health project

Country/NMO: Estonia (EstMSA)

Program: Mental Health

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

Almost every month during school year we will have different activities where we introduce ways how to keep mental health in good shape. We have had yoga classes, laughter yoga, meditation, art therapy, talk nights about perfectionism and studying.

Focus area:

Mental Health among medical students

Problem statement:

This activity is needed, because medical students and doctors are at bigger risk for mental health issues, like depression, comparing to general population.
About 30% of residents have depression or depressive symptoms (Prevalence of Depression and Depressive Symptoms Among Resident Physicians A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Douglas A. Mata; Marco A. Ramos; Narinder Bansal; Rida Khan; Constance Guille; Emanuele Di Angelantonio; Srijan Sen. JAMA December 8, 2015 Volume 314, Number 22.). Studies done in Estonia have shown that medical students experience high level of stress during studies and we should pay more attention to prevent mental health issues (Medical students’ stress, burnout and health in the first three study
years. Eda Merisalu, Ulrich Wiesmann, Merli Ilves, Ulrike Pötz, Mare Vähi. Eesti Arst 2014; 93(10):561–569).

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Target group is medical students in Tartu University. They as future doctors will benefit from it and in the long run also hospitals and patients, because doctors will be more effective doing their work.

Objectives and indicators of success:

Every year 6-8 activities.
In every activity at least 20 people participate.
Activities are about different ways to keep your mental health in shape and how to deal with mental health problems.
70% of participant say the activity was useful for them.

Methodology:

We will make event almost every month and send email and make Facebook event on our EstMSA page, so we can reach medical students. After every event we will ask participants to fill the survey about the event.

Plans for evaluation:

After every event we will have survey, where we ask how people liked the activity.