Medical Student Mental Health

[MSmentalhealth]

What mental health care services are available for medical students at your school? What was useful for you or others?

A fellow medical student and I are working on creating a forum or website for medical students who need mental health support. Since there are many students struggling across the US, we wanted to see what services are out there and what has been helpful for other students at other schools.

We love to here your input and ideas.

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[ciestar]

My school has a full time psychologist and a full time psychiatrist on staff free for students

 

[smoke4joy]

We have the same. Besides, I know that there is a support group for such students.

 

[RNthenDoc]

+to lots of counseling services available.

There is a huge effort to at least maintain the appearance of a high priority on student mental health.

I chose the above words carefully.

 

[TurtleyReady4Med]

My school pays for 100% mental health counseling whether or not you are on school insurance/ see their people, and offers monthly wellness meetings (basically group therapy).

 

[plshelpvanxious]

Counseling, including couples counseling

 

[Planes2Doc]

Free counseling with weekly appointments. Medical LOA can be approved very quickly by administration if needed.

 

[nobaddays]

Lol at "free" and "my school pays for"

 

[nobaddays]

To be fair, it does make a big difference when you're living on loans for costs that are included in your tuition vs. costs you need to pay for out of your health insurance deductible (or if the service isn't covered by insurance at all). You're guaranteed that you can afford the services if it comes out of your tuition, because that's a set fee that you pay every semester and definitely have the loans to cover, whereas anything that comes out of your cost of living could be eaten up by car troubles, a broken laptop, needing an expensive prescription, residency application fees, etc.

I completely agree. And I agree that the programs are necessary and am happy to see them rolled into the cost off attendance -- just poking some fun.

 

[mehc012]

Counseling is available at the same health center as the undergrad, but it's...not great. Some of my classmates have had luck with it, though. They will only see you a limited number of times per semester (once every 2-3wks) and usually cannot offer a fixed appointment time, so you have to make a new appt each week based on the completely variable availability of whoever you're seeing.

Our insurance theoretically covers psychiatry visits, but since I've had to pay through the nose for the supposedly 'free' preventive health services at the student health center (not even at an outside provider!) I don't trust it at all. Most of my friends who've used our student health insurance agree that it's hit or miss as to whether it actually covers anything.

The best bet here is to get on Medicaid or use your parents' insurance, and then pursue the normal channels. But mental health services in our area are quite overbooked, with one of the hospital systems having a 3-4mo waiting period to see ANYone, nevermind find a provider who is a good fit.

Oh, and good luck finding anyone able to work with an M3 schedule.

 

[Philosopher Jagger]

My school and some others I have heard of formed a group designed to help students deal with failures, remediation, repeating, and low scores etc. as they relate to mental health. Sort of a "your world isn't ruined" type group with perspective from fellow students, faculty, and counselors. So far it seems to have been very liked by students. All types participate and get a lot from it.

 

[NYCdude]

IIRC, if a student receives mental health services, it's not fully confidential and it can be pulled up by future employers.

 

[khrd2]

What mental health care services are available for medical students at your school? What was useful for you or others?

A fellow medical student and I are working on creating a forum or website for medical students who need mental health support. Since there are many students struggling across the US, we wanted to see what services are out there and what has been helpful for other students at other schools.

We love to here your input and ideas.

I also have a counseling service at school but haven’t had the guts to go to her. I’m not the best at opening up about my mental health. I think an online community maybe a chat group could be an option. I feel so much more comfortable expressing myself online (for obvious reasons). Would love to see something like that if possible.

 

[nobaddays]

I also have a counseling service at school but haven’t had the guts to go to her. I’m not the best at opening up about my mental health. I think an online community maybe a chat group could be an option. I feel so much more comfortable expressing myself online (for obvious reasons). Would love to see something like that if possible.

Well for what it's worth, whoever is there to help you should be professionally trained in dealing with students who don't feel comfortable opening up, and will still be able to help you... probably a lot more than you would think.

 

[deleted903608]

My school has a mental health center with a full-time psychiatrist on campus. Super convenient and helpful.

 

[deleted707454]

Liquor store across the street. And a ping pong table

 

[NickNaylor]

At my med school, we had access to psychiatrists and individual therapy at no cost. Medications were covered on our school-provided insurance with a minimal copay (I paid $10/month for an SSRI).

 

[studentofsdn]

Psychology students and they could funnel you to a psyschiatrist if you wanted meds. I had a bit of a drinking problem and they told me I was banned from recieving therapy though because they weren't qualified to deal with that and I couldn't pay for the place they recommended I go lol. It's really messed up. Just the illusion of the school wanting to take care of you, but in reality it was no help at all.

 

[deleted707454]

Psychology students and they could funnel you to a psyschiatrist if you wanted meds. I had a bit of a drinking problem and they told me I was banned from recieving therapy though because they weren't qualified to deal with that and I couldn't pay for the place they recommended I go lol. It's really messed up. Just the illusion of the school wanting to take care of you, but in reality it was no help at all.

Wow... Did the psych students reciprocally get to go see the med students when they got sick/injured? Cuz if so- Like, let me stitch you up real quick even though I've only done it once before... on a piece of rubber.

I feel like that's a big drop in standard of care; figure us students are a somewhat at-risk population

 

[studentofsdn]

Wow... Did the psych students reciprocally get to go see the med students when they got sick/injured? Cuz if so- Like, let me stitch you up real quick even though I've only done it once before... on a piece of rubber.

I feel like that's a big drop in standard of care; figure us students are a somewhat at-risk population

right? it was seriously messed up. I didnt realize it at the time, but in retrospect it makes me really angry.