On June 26, 2020, the AAMC hosted the webinar Supporting Minority Medical Student Mental Health. Minority students enter medical school carrying the weight of years of racial trauma, socioeconomic and educational inequities, and disproportionate health disparities. This weight is exacerbated by the culture of academic medicine. Data suggest that minority medical students frequently report feelings of isolation and exclusion during preclinical and clinical training. The coupling of social isolation with grief, anxiety, trauma, and reduced psychological safety resulting from the Coronavirus pandemic and the recent civil unrest due to ongoing systemic racism and oppression has heightened the need for attention to the mental health of students in minority and marginalized populations. With minority medical students already experiencing lack of community, the increased isolation caused by national quarantine may place them at a greater risk of diminished mental health. This webinar is designed to explore the impacts of today’s social climate on minority medical student wellbeing, discuss the compounded trauma minority medical students may be experiencing, and share strategies to create institutional climates and policies that can reduce risk and mitigate psychological distress and mental health crises.
During this webinar, participants will:
1. Understand the multi-layered trauma minority medical students may be experiencing at the nexus of structural racism, national health crisis, and the toxic culture of academic medicine
2. Identify the mental health risk factors created by this trauma
3. Share resources to support minority medical student mental health and wellbeing
4. Discuss the importance of institutional climates and policies to reduce risk and mitigate mental health crises
Moderator:
Geoffrey Young, PhD
Senior Director, Student Affairs and Programs, AAMC
Speakers:
Annelle Primm, MD, MPH
Senior Medical Director, The Steve Fund
Lee Jones, MD
Associate Dean for Students
Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
UCSF School of Medicine
Kaosoluchi Enendu, M4
University of California Irvine SOM and Co-chair SNMA Mental Health Initiative
Jeunice Owens-Walton, M3
Medical College of Georgia and Co-chair SNMA Mental Health Initiative
Donna Tran, M3,
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and Interim President, Asian Pacific American Medical Student Association (APAMSA)