Well-being Campaign – France (ANEMF)

Name of the activity: Well-being Campaign

Country/NMO: France (ANEMF)

Program: Mental Health

Contact information: [email protected]

Type of the activity: Campaign

General description:

Mental health of medical students is an urgent matter, as can be deducted from the alarming results of our investigation in June 2017. The issue does not have only one cause, thus it is complicated to give it a lone answer. This is why we decided to address this issue by making the well-being of med students our great cause for 2018. This campaign will give way to many actions, both nation-wide and locally, with four objectives : humanizing the pedagogy, making our structures more caring, strengthening our student community and cleansing our formation environment.

Focus area:

Mental Health among medical students

Problem statement:

There is a MH problem among med students in France, and it was investigated by a study we led. It showed alarming numbers : 66% depressive symptoms, 29% suicidal thoughts, etc. Tragic events are too frequent.

Target groups and beneficiaries:

The targets of our campaign are : medical students, universities, health institutions, French government. The beneficiaries are med students, and in a longer run patients.

Objectives and indicators of success:

• Humanizing medical pedagogy. (indicators : new med schools using relational simulation, reform of our medical curriculum)
• Making our structures more caring. (indicator : free and specific counselling units made available for every med student)
• Strengthening our student community. (indicators : new defense of rights programs or actions against discriminations launched in our associations)
• Cleanse our formation environment. (indicators : actions against sexism and bullying are taken by the government)

Methodology:

The first part of this campaign is centered around communicational matters. A speech was given at our NGA in March to start the campaign, and we uploaded it on our social networks afterwards. A graphic universe for the campaign was designed.

We then developed the four objectives of our campaigns. We are going to develop concrete actions on these themes, such as :
• creating a web platform for students to make propositions about the improvement of our work conditions in clinical training.
• creating a webmail address for students to ask questions about their rights and to seek counselling in case of disrespect of those rights.
• communicate about our overseas med students issues, to raise awareness about this problematic.
• …

Plans for evaluation:

Our campaign will be evaluated based on each objective we decided to work on.
The evaluation will have to be led both nation-wide and locally :
• nation-wide, the evaluation will take into account the legal and reglementary changes we will try to promote, the awareness campaigns that will be led and the reactions they will cause, the partnerships and advocacy results we are going to claim.
• locally, the evaluation will rely on the changes that will be made in the organisation of our medical schools, the perceived increase or decrease of med students’ mental health and eventual surveys to compare the situation before and after our activity.