A personal tale of wellbeing:<em> Mental health issues in health students - What needs to be done?</em> — YRD
  1. Schedule
  2. Concurrent Session 4 - Paper Session with a Focus on Nurses
  3. A personal tale of wellbeing: Mental health issues in health students - What needs to be done?

A personal tale of wellbeing: Mental health issues in health students - What needs to be done? (47)

Frayne Gomez 1
  1. Deakin Medical School, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia

Introduction:

The importance of health student's well-being has been identified as a major public health concern (1,2,3,4). Health students have unnecessarily high rates of mental illness and psychological issues (3,4). Consequently, this can impair health student's functioning level and lead on to difficulties upon transition to professional practice (1,2,5). Universities have recognised this and have enforced awareness and support services for students (6,7). However, health students still may not receive adequate psychological and psychiatric support (8,9).  I have dealt with significant mental health issues personally as a health student and seen how university campaigns promote good well-being.

Objectives: I will discuss epidemiology and etiology of mental health issues, the barriers in delivering adequate mental health care and the  positives and negatives of our approach to maintain good well-being all in regards to health students. Subsequently, I will envisage what we will need in the future to maintain adequate well-being in our health students. 

Method: Comprehensive Literature Review

 Results & Conclusion: To be finalised and completed if abstract is completed

  1. Bewick B, Koutsopoulou G, Miles J, Slaa E, Barkham M. Changes in undergraduate students’ psychological well‐being as they progress through university. Studies in Higher Education. 2010;35(6):633–45.
  2. Paro HBMS, Morales NMO, Silva CHM, Rezende CHA, Pinto RMC, Morales RR, et al. Health-related quality of life of medical students. Medical Education. 2010;44(3):227–35.
  3. Cleary M, Horsfall J, Baines J, Happell B. Mental health behaviours among undergraduate nursing students: Issues for consideration. Nurse Education Today. 2012 Nov;32(8):951–5.
  4. Bíró É, Ádány R, Kósa K. Mental health and behaviour of students of public health and their correlation with social support: a cross-sectional study. BMC Public Health. 2011 Nov 16;11(1):871.
  5. Byrd DR, McKinney KJ. Individual, Interpersonal, and Institutional Level Factors Associated With the Mental Health of College Students. Journal of American College Health. 2012;60(3):185–93.
  6. Seritan A, Hunt J, Shy A, Rea M, Worley L. The State of Medical Student Wellness: A Call for Culture Change. Acad Psychiatry. 2012 Jan 1;36(1):7–10.
  7. Willcoxson L, Cotter J, Joy S. Beyond the first‐year experience: the impact on attrition of student experiences throughout undergraduate degree studies in six diverse universities. Studies in Higher Education. 2011;36(3):331–52.
  8. Hunt J, Eisenberg D. Mental Health Problems and Help-Seeking Behavior Among College Students. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2010 Jan;46(1):3–10. ''1.
  9. Tuomi J, Aimala A-M, Plazar N, Starčič AI, Žvanut B. Students’ well-being in nursing undergraduate education. Nurse Education Today [Internet]. [cited 2013 Apr 11]; Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260691713000701