The article of dr. Boróka Gács, research associate professor of the Department of Behavioural Sciences at head of the Psychology Counselling Service was published in the 45. issue of the Orvosi Hetilap (Medical Weekly) with the title “The role of mental hygiene support for medical students – experiences at the University of Pécs”.
The mental health of medical students plays a critical role during their studies, which are long and full of challenges. The academic expectations, high workload and emotional stress all contribute to the mental load and burnout of medical students, which could result in an increased load on the healthcare system later. Therefore, psychology support and mental hygiene services are highly important in medical education” – says the preface of the article.
The goal of the article – co-written by Boróka Gács and dr. Tamás Tényi, director of the UPMS Clinical Centre Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Krisztina Pálfi (UPMS Department of Translational Medicine) and Jutta Major PhD students (UPMS Clinical Centre, Department of Dermatology, Venereology and Oncodermatology) and dr. Andrea Horváth-Sarródi assistant professor (UPMS Department of Public Health Medicine) – is to introduce and analyse the role of the Psychology Counselling Service in the support of the mental health of medical students. The service has been active at the University of Pécs Medical School since 2007.
The results show that the Psychology Counselling Service of the Pécs Medical School plays an important tole in the support of the mental health of medical students, helping them conquer the academic challenges of their studies, and decreasing emotional stress and the risk of burnout.
According to the study, since November 2011, the service has been used by 1111 students and colleagues 2012 times. 1170 sessions were for Hungarian students, 505 for international students and 337 for colleagues. The most common topics were relationship issues (37.6%) and dealing with negative life events (33.1%).
The most common method used by the Psychology Counselling Service for the Hungarian students and colleagues were support-based method-specific, education-accurate psychology methods (relaxation methods, autogen trainings, system-based approaches, integrative methods). For international students, life coaching was the most used intervention, which mostly means development of coping methods.
The two methods above were followed up with crisis intervention in both cases. Formation of psychotherapy motivation happened in 3.4% of cases, which is strongly connected to delegation to psychiatric or psychotherapeutic care.
The full article is available here (in Hungarian).
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