WPA Working Group on Medical Students: new accomplishments and online resources

As the COVID‐19 pandemic persists and millions are impacted by war and economic unrest, it is critical that mental health services receive support ¹ , ² , ³ , ⁴ . Despite the pressing need, there remains a significant gap in access to services and an ongoing shortage of mental health workforce, especially in low‐ and middle‐income countries ⁵ . In the WPA Action Plan 2020‐2023, capacity building and promotion of psychiatry among medical students has been an important pillar ⁶ . To this aim, a WPA Working Group on Medical Students was created and launched in December 2020, with the support and attendance of the WPA President and medical educators from Qatar, the US, Canada, Pakistan, India, Australia, Mexico and the UK.

The remit of this Working Group includes four components: to identify opportunities for promoting psychiatry as a career among medical students; to identify organizations and individuals interested in participating and promoting WPA's Action Plan in nurturing psychiatry among medical students; to liaise with other WPA Working Groups regarding medical students; and to support medical students around the world ⁷ .

In order to address the growing needs for mental health workforce, educators must approach the stigma about becoming a mental health professional ⁸ . To this end, the Working Group produced a “Stigma” video featuring medical students from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Egypt, Ghana, Indonesia, Nepal, Portugal, Thailand, Turkey and South Africa, discussing the impact of stigma on pursuing a career in psychiatry. A central theme was the need to speak up to address myths about mental health and dismantle implicit or explicit bias against people with a mental health disorder. This video is available in English, French, Spanish and Russian on the WPA website, so that medical educators can share it with their trainees and medical students.

In addition to the video, the Working Group is continuing to develop free, open access online modules for psychiatric educators. E‐learning has emerged as an increasingly important tool for medical student education during the COVID‐19 pandemic, as it provides a flexible environment where students can learn at their own pace ⁹ , ¹⁰ . The topics covered by the modules are “Medical students wellbeing and selfcare”, “Stigma in psychiatry – barriers and solutions”, and “Introduction to psychiatry – what and why of psychiatry”. These modules were developed by international teams of psychiatry faculty and medical students and are available on the WPA Education Portal ¹¹ .

The Working Group has organized several in‐person events to promote psychiatry among medical students, foster discussions about well‐being, and offer career mentorship. The Group visited the Siriraj Hospital faculty and medical students during the 2022 World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, to share online resources and conduct a burnout exercise among the undergraduate medical students. Members of the Working Group also organized events for medical students at the Thematic and Regional WPA Conferences in Karachi, Pakistan, and Kolkata, India in 2023.

To complement the in‐person conferences, the Working Group is fostering global engagement of medical students around the world through essay competitions, art competitions, and video competitions centered on psychiatry themes. Regarding the essay competition, the Working Group received more than 150 entries from 39 different countries on the topic of “Breaking the silence: how is stigma a barrier to mental health”. The top 16 essays selected by an international panel of psychiatrists were published in a WPA e‐book. An art competition was organized during the WPA Thematic Congress in Lahore, Pakistan, in March 2022, featuring undergraduate and postgraduate medical students and allied health students interested in psychiatry. Finally, at the WPA Regional Congress in Kolkata, India, in April 2023, a brief video competition was organized on the theme “The importance of psychiatry in the medical field”. Twenty‐seven videos were submitted by undergraduate medical students from the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The Working Group is also active in scholarship regarding undergraduate medical education and psychiatry. The activities are accessible on the dedicated section of the WPA website (www.wpanet.org/wg‐on‐medicalstudents).

Future directions include: a) to organize additional essay competitions to promote psychiatry as a career; b) to publish a survey about psychiatry curriculum in medical education across medical schools in different countries; c) to engage in virtual and in‐person activities to promote psychiatry among medical students and to address burnout among students; d) to liaison with regional and international organizations to promote psychiatry; e) to deliver presentations at WPA congresses and other national and international conferences; and f) to implement social media and video campaigns to promote psychiatry.