Aziz’s Biography

Hello, my name is Abdulaziz Alotaibi from Kuwait. I am a medical student at the Royal Collage of Surgeon in Dublin. In the last year I was in a small town called Tralee doing a foundation year. It was a very great year to start the journey of medicine as I built there many relationships and also I learned how to interact and respect people of diverse cultures. These two things in my opinion are the key to make students professional in their professions . I came from Tralee with enough confidence and enthusiasm to start a new life in Dublin. It is really an honor for me to be chosen for this elective which seeks to raise mental health awareness. Raising mental health awareness is very important to eliminate a great misconception for the mentally ill. Many think these people are lazy or even crazy due to the lack of awareness. While these people could have stress, anxiety or bipolar disorder. Unfortunately, mental health is neglected compared to the physical health. So, by raising awareness, mental health could be seen as an illness and be managed by treatment and not be isolated from the physical health conditions such as diabetes, blood pressure and cancer. In this elective, I will do my best to make this issue a priority to the public by raising their awareness and therefore producing a flow of attention which will lead to improvements to those who are mentally ill on their policy, research and service development.