Never Alone – Grenada (IFMSA-Grenada)

Name of the activity: Never Alone

Country/NMO: Grenada (IFMSA-Grenada)

Program: Mental Health

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Education

General description:

Throughout the week we host events to shed light on mental health in the medical student community. We provide events to allow students to engage in de-stressing activities that promote wellbeing while we discuss the issues facing our students. We manage to put a smile on many faces and put people at ease. On the first day we have a Grassroots project where people planted a seed and were invited to the community garden. In the evening they attended a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy workshop. The following day was bake sale and Yoga. Next we have Puppy Therapy and concluded the week with “Scrub Away Stigma” where students wore scrubs all day and joined for a solidarity/awareness picture.

Focus area:

Mental Health among medical students

Problem statement:

Many medical students are so focused on their studies that they tend to forget to take care of themselves. Our goal with Never Alone is to show students that there are resources available to them in times of need, and simple ways they can improve with wellbeing. At the same time, as we provide these events and activities we also bring forward the topic of mental health and fight the stigma associated with it, especially as physicians in training.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

Our target group began as medical students, and has expanded to veterinary students and undergraduate students on our campus. This semester we also managed to reach out to professors and the clinical facilitators (recent medical graduates) for medical students.

Objectives and indicators of success:

-Open discussion on mental health struggles within the medical student community and reduce the stigma around mental health.
-Provide activities that allow students to destress and focus on wellness.
-Advertise the resources available to students for addressing their needs and showing that there is a support system.

Methodology:

Every semester we have 1 week dedicated as the mental health awareness week. In this week we have events for each day which cover different aspects of mental health awareness. Events to de-stress: Yoga, Puppy Therapy, etc. Events for campaigning: Scrub Away Stigma day with photo. Events to reach out to students and talk: Bake Sale with pamphlets on mental health resources. Informative and strength building: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Workshop.

Plans for evaluation:

We have a Facebook page that tracks the interactions people make with the events. We also collect information of students that participate in some events. We then see how much of our student body is being reached.