RUMS Welfare
The first few weeks back from the Christmas holiday can be tough. RUMS Welfare was there to help ease the transition into 2018 and make the start to second term a bit more bearable.
This was part of our wider initiative to promote the mental health and wellbeing of RUMS students.
RUMS Welfare Week kicked off on Monday 22nd January with the Welfare Stall. Members of student support services within the Medical School and UCL were there to explain their services to students. If that wasn’t enough incentive to spend a few minutes in the Cruciform foyer, we were also lucky enough to borrow the Planet Organic smoothie bike for a few hours so medics could make some delicious smoothies, whilst burning a few calories!! WIN WIN! Planet Organic also kindly provided some goodie bags with some lovely treats to keep people going through their afternoon lectures.
Day 2 of Welfare Week hosted an incredible speaker, Professor John Wyatt. Medics4Medics welcomed him to speak about his history with mental health in the medical profession and how a mental illness can even make you a better doctor. He spoke candidly about the stigmas and prevalence of mental health in medical students and there were some really great questions and open discussion.
On Thursday, we were joined by two UCL medical students and two foundation year doctors, who spoke openly about their experiences of mental health at medical school. We learnt about how to recognise the early signs of mental illness within yourself and those around you, and how to find the right help no matter how much you’re struggling. It was inspiring to hear their stories and the Q&A session really opened up the dialogue about mental health among medical students.
What better way to end the week than free food and some down time with furry friends?
The RUMS WelFAIR took place on Friday and this was an opportunity for students to find out more about student support and also meet the Welfare reps. To ease everyone in to the weekend, there was a lovely ambience; relaxing music, a chill station with massage chairs, FREE Krispy Kremes, and LABRADORS and BUNNIES!! We hope you were able to swing by for some information, food or Instagram material!
Hopefully everyone enjoyed RUMS Welfare Week and feels better informed about the services available both through the Medical School and UCL. If you didn’t get a chance to talk to staff from student support or want to find out more, check out the following links…
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/students/student-support-and-wellbeing
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/medical-school/staff-students/student-support
Lots of Love and Support,
Your WelFAIRY Godmothers x
Prithika Prasad and Iram Hasan
