European Psychiatry - Volume 33 - March 2016

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24th European Congress of Psychiatry / European Psychiatry 33S (2016) S18–S55 S29
Engaging students with psychiatry: Why, how,
and where are we now
S34
Medical students choice of psychiatry
– an international survey
D. Bhugra (President)
World Psychiatric Association, London, United Kingdom
The appeal of psychiatry as a speciality varies around the globe for a
number of reasons. In a majority of countries, medical students are
reluctant to choose psychiatry and this has become a much more
evident matter of concern in the past three decades. The factors,
which affect the choice of psychiatry as a specialty by medical stu-
dents include external and internal stigma, quality of teaching of
the subject as well as research exposure and clinical experience
during placements. In many countries, a placement may last only
two weeks and the exposure is to patients in asylums, whereas a
majority of psychiatric conditions are treated in primary care. In
addition, personal factors such as the ability to deal with openness
and ambiguity play a role in the choice of speciality. A study in
19 countries to explore factors prior to entering medical school,
experiences in medical school and postgraduate in the choice of
the subject showed that those medical students who are likely to
choose psychiatry fall into three major categories:
– those who had decided prior to joining medical school that they
wanted to choose psychiatry;
– those who decide during medical school placements and, finally;
– those who select the specialty after having finished their medical
school training.
The latter group has two further subgroups: one, which falls pas-
sively into psychiatry and another who make an active choice to
take it up. Among 2198 students who participated, 4.5% of the sam-
ple planned to become psychiatrists, with a further 15% considering
it as a possible career. Women (21%) were more likely to consider
psychiatry than men (16%). Key factors associated with choosing
psychiatry were personal as well as based on teaching/learning
experiences. In order to recruit into psychiatry, better teaching,
exposure to common mental disorders and small research projects
may prove to be helpful.
Disclosure of interest The author has not supplied his declaration
of competing interest.
S35
Papageno program: When learners
collaborate for a safer coverage of
suicide
C.E. Notredame
Regional Medical Center of Lille, Child and adolescent psychiatry,
Lille, France
Media coverage of suicide has been repeatedly shown to influ-
ence suicide rates. TheWerther Effect (WE) qualifies the propensity
of suicide stories to prompt imitative behaviors. By contrast, the
Papageno effect (PE) was more recently identified as a way for
journalists to contribute to suicide prevention through their pro-
ductions. Crucially, both WE and PE depend on the quantitative
(audience, redundancies, size of articles, etc.) and qualitative (type
of story, editorial style, content, etc.) properties of the coverage.
In order to promote the PE and limit the WE, the World Health
Organization (WHO) have edited a guideline for media profession-
als. For instance, journalists are advised to prohibit sensationalism,
avoid pictures or details about the suicide method, and show due
respect to the bereaved relatives. However, it is now clear that the
only chance for these recommendations to be applied is to integrate
their diffusion into a more general effort toward collaboration with
journalists.
Papageno is a French national suicide prevention program that fully
relies on learners to rise awareness about suicide and its coverage. It
mainly consists in pair-meetings between psychiatry trainees and
journalism students. Such an innovative formula breaks with the
old top-down knowledge transmissionmodel in order to foster per-
sonalized and sustainable sensitization. It aims at growing up a new
generation of journalistswhowould bemore aware of their respon-
sibility concerning suicide andwouldmore spontaneously resort to
the WHO guidelines. Ultimately, the Papageno program strives for
the creation of a new culture where journalists and psychiatrist
would collaborate for a safer media coverage of suicide.
Disclosure of interest The author has not supplied his declaration
of competing interest.
S36
Youth leadership in mental health:
Views from EFPT and IFMSA
M. Pinto da Costa , D. Silva ∗, S. Essafi , E. Frau , V. Berquist ,
K. Maceviciute
1 Hospital de Magalhães Lemos, Psychiatry Department of Porto,
Porto, Portugal
2 University of Porto, Faculty of Medicine, Porto, Portugal
3 University of Sousse, Medical School, Sousse, Tunisia
4 University of Fribourg, Faculty of Medicine, Fribourg, Switzerland
5 Monash University, Faculty of Medicine, Melbourne, Australia
6 Vilnius University, Faculty of Medicine, Vilnius, Lithuania
∗ Corresponding author.
The world today is more challenging than ever before. Discrimina-
tion, stigma, and ever-changing lifestyles are just a few examples
of elements that have a profound impact on the mental health sta-
tus of our global population. Even though the burden of mental
illness is well documented and increasing, mental health remains
a neglected area of health worldwide.
Youth Associations, like the International Federation of Medical
Students’ Associations (IFMSA) and the European Federation of Psy-
chiatric Trainees (EFPT) recognize the importance of tackling this
problem, taking an active role on promoting education in our com-
munities, tackling stigma and advocating for more action. Medical
students worldwide, fromSlovenia, Australia, Lebanon, Brazil, Que-
bec and Grenada – among at least 42 other countries, organise
expansive, creative and engaging mental health projects.
With particular interest we can mention the winner of the last Rex
Crossley Award, attributed to a Slovenian project ‘in Reflection’: a
suicide prevention project, which tackles the different factors asso-
ciated with vulnerable groups through a series of workshops and
campaigns that seek to destigmatize the mental health problems
and offer the opportunity to high school students to get the help
they need.
This talk will give an insight into strengths, weaknesses and chal-
lenges faced by youth in tacklingmental health, specially in the role
of the IFMSA, displaying some of our most interesting and innova-
tive projects from future mental health leaders around the world,
together with the initiatives of EFPT.
Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their decla-
ration of competing interest.