Medical schools urged to offer more support to students with mental health problems

Medical schools need to work harder to support students with mental health issues by fostering a culture in which mental illness can be openly discussed and where those who need help can easily access it, says new guidance.

The guidance, produced jointly by the General Medical Council and the Medical Schools Council,1 advises medical schools on how best to support their students, who, it says, face considerable pressures on demanding courses.

But the advice also targets medical students themselves in a bid to destigmatise mental illness and allay fears that a diagnosis will mar career prospects and mark the individual out as unable to cope.

The guidance was developed on the back of research2 commissioned by the GMC and a growing number of requests from medical schools for help on how best to deal with mental illness.

GMC figures show that the number of students declaring that they have a mental health condition at the point of provisional registration has doubled since 2009.

The guidance points out that mental illness spans a range of conditions, and that depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and substance misuse can adversely affect students’ ability to study.

Medical schools need to make it clear that these conditions are common and that they rarely preclude a student from completing his or her studies or pursuing a career in medicine, the guidance says.

And it recommends that schools do more to promote good mental health and wellbeing among students, and train their staff to recognise symptoms so that students can be signposted to the help that they need early on.

Medical students who are supported properly will provide better care for patients in the future, the guidance says, but urges medical school staff not to treat students themselves and to make sure that students have access to independent and appropriate medical support.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, said that it was crucial that tomorrow’s doctors had the right support at every stage of their training.

“We need to be open about this—doctors like every other group in society have mental health problems which can affect their lives,” he said. “In the vast majority of cases, with the right support they can be dealt with successfully, but it needs a culture which encourages students to come forward and seek help and it needs that support to be there.”

Tony Weetman, who chairs the Medical Schools Council, added, “All medical schools have support services in place to help students with a range of problems, including mental health conditions. [But] evidence has shown that students can be reluctant to seek help when they need it so it’s important that we work together to lessen the barriers between them and any support they need—because with good support having a mental health condition need not be a barrier to becoming a great doctor.”