WellMed Liberation Campaign

Heather McAdam (Peer Support Contact); Debbie Aitken (Staff Contact); Grace Loy (BAME Officer); Saloni More (International Officer); Laura Shoveller

(LGBT+ Officer); Stephanie McKinnon (Widening Participation Officer).

Workshop Goals

- For us to share share the work that is currently being undertaken to engage lived experience students whilst improving their mental health support

- For you to share your experiences in working towards equity, improving wellbeing and student driven research

Disclaimer

● This is ongoing research still developing concrete ‘results’. If you would like to follow the project, follow @WellMedEdinburgh on social media (or email WellMedEdinburgh@gmail.com)

● The nature of the topic may include triggers during discussion so please do get in touch with our trained Peer Support Leaders (same details as above) to access support and resources

1. Background

● Identify mental health challenges unique to students from different backgrounds

● Produce a survey.● Conduct focus groups.● Generate an action plan that the University of Edinburgh

can follow to improve support.

2. Aims

- To identify the mental health challenges faced by underrepresented groups at medical school using a qualitative questionnaire and focus groups

- The data from this study will then be presented to Edinburgh Medical School with the aim of helping to reduce such challenges in these groups

3. Methods

1. Open application to medical students 2. Officers assemble! 3. Research and develop

questions for survey

4. Timeline and Next Steps

March April

Survey (All) Survey (All)

FebJan

Literature Survey

Questionnaire Generation

Ethics Approval

May

Social Media Engagement

Conference Submission

Analysis

July

Data Protection Training

NovJune Sept

Write-up

Survey and Focus Groups (Edinburgh Medical School only)

Break (plan change): Making time to study and reflect

Breakout Rooms 1

● 5 minutes

● What do you think the challenges are for students from marginalised groups?

● What do you think the challenges of engaging these students are for staff/support services?

Whiteboard

Challenges for Students: Challenges for Staff/Support Services:

The Officers

Why They Joined and Their Experiences

WP OfficerStephanie McKinnon

(she/her) Year 5 MBChB

“I've always felt pretty passionate about the issues faced by those from socially deprived communities and the evident disparities in their access to education. I remember hearing all the posh accents (being from a pretty rough part of the West of Scotland) on my post-offer visit day and thinking ‘what have I let myself in for?’ I knew coming into medicine there would be a lot of people from background different to my own but I didn't realise at 17 quite how different they would be. Widening participation students make up such a tiny part of each year group and I really want to give them a voice or at least know someone else knows their struggles and that we're working to show the medical school and the university that when you're a widening participation student - university is that bit more difficult if you don't have access to proper support.”

LGBT+ OfficerLaura Shoveller (she/her)

Year 4 MBChB

“I hope to use my time in the committee to help the medical school understand how important LGBT+ health education and representation is within medicine and then implement learning materials and outcomes into the medical curriculum at all levels.”

International OfficerSaloni More (she/her)

Year 2 MBChB

- Why did I join?

- What have I learned about using my lived experience so far?

BAME OfficerGrace Loy Ming Hooi

(she/her) Year 3 MBChB

“Admittedly, BAME might be an overly broad term as the challenges faced by individuals from different cultures and background undeniably differs. Regardless, I wanted to be able to address the issues and concerns of medical students originating from various backgrounds and to make sure that their voices are heard.”

Staff SupportDebbie Aitken (she/her)

CEP Director

- Why did I join?

- What have I learned about using my lived experience so far?

Student SupportHeather McAdam (she/her)

WellMed Founder

- Why did I join?

- What have I learned about using my lived experience so far?

Breakout Rooms 2

● 5 minutes

● How would you find out about the experiences of students from marginalised groups?

● Have you worked with similar projects? What went well? What didn’t?

Whiteboard

Collecting experiences: Previous project successes/failures:

Halfway Reflections

Learning Points and Future Impact

WP OfficerStephanie McKinnon

(she/her) Year 5 MBChB

“I’ve never really thought I could make a difference to how social inequality affects medical students and now I really want to continue the work throughout my career for both patients and medical students. It’s such a huge issue facing the health service and I think I can really use my own experiences in my career to make a change now”

LGBT+ OfficerLaura Shoveller (she/her)

Year 4 MBChB

“I’ve learned that I have more knowledge and experience in this field than I thought and that I should stop underestimating this”

“[I joined] to gain support for my work in LGBT+ health education and to support other liberation officers… my overall aims are the same but with an additional aim to produce a publishable piece of work.”

International OfficerSaloni More (she/her)

Year 2 MBChB

What have I learned about engaging in research so far?

BAME OfficerGrace Loy Ming Hooi

(she/her) Year 2 MBChB

“ There is more to constructing a good survey that what meets the eye…”

Key Themes and Career Exploration

Joining reason: to make change (3 officers)

Initial goals: improving student experience and support (3)

Personal experience: ‘imposter syndrome’ (2),

Project experience: grown unexpectedly (3); lack of knowledge (1)

New goals: impact other medical schools (1), produce publishable work (1)

Mental health: more complex than thought (2), the importance of a teamwork approach (3). improved skills in supporting others (4)

Take Home Messages

● Lived experience can be used to improve confidence as well as informing the research aimed for those it impacts

● Student driven research can pose unique challenges: personal bias, different skill sets and progression requirements

● Through sharing learning points, we (hopefully!) can help encourage such projects whilst finding solutions to common challenges

Your Turn

Thoughts, Ideas and Questions