Aware Lecture Series

Stopping Youth Mental Health Stigma

On the 12^thof February, we attended an aware lecture under the title of Stopping Youth Mental Health Stigma in St. Patrick’s University Hospital. This lecture was given by Prof. Eilis Hennessy who is a professor in developmental psychology. As medical students, we should know more about mental health because it’s related to our elective topic, which includes raising our awareness about it. This was the first time we ever attended a lecture about the youth mental health stigma and how to stop it because the community does not concentrate on such an issue however, the professor mentioned that mental health stigma is a societal issue. I was surprised by the small number of attendants and that some of them were suffering from different mental health issues and the others were students and professors. The professor manged to deliver the lecture in such a clear and simple way in a short amount of time despite the fact that the topic was highly branched. We liked her way in using examples to clarify the topic. Moreover, her language was clear and understandable to the point where all the attendants were paying attention and participating. What we liked the most was that the professor was explaining the questions before asking them, which gave us the opportunity to understand the questions and attempt to answer them. The professor allocated time for questions and participation at the end of the lecture and a student, who had bipolar disorder when he was 15, described the effects of the stigma he faced from the society and people surrounding him. Overall, it was a great opportunity to raise our awareness and improve our knowledge about mental health and how mental health patients are affected by the stigma they receive from the community. Having the lecture in the hospital has also given us the chance to visit mental health services department.