Call for volunteers

The Society of Healthcare Professionals with Disabilities is seeking volunteers! Please fill out this short online form if you would be willing to volunteer: https://forms.gle/yawjWQ6ZL8Ldp1nL7

ACP members shares their stories

Don't miss this story on ACP Internist titled, "Doctors with disability reflect on challenges." Paralyzed in a driving accident. Multiple sclerosis. Born deaf. Achromatopsia. Navigating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities

Don't miss this important article published in the Oct 2019 issue of the Journal of Graduate Medical Education:

Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities

Lisa M. Meeks, Neera R. Jain, Christopher Moreland, Nichole Taylor, Jason C. Brookman, and Michael Fitzsimons (2019) Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities. Journal of Graduate Medical Education: October 2019, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 498-503.

National Conference on Medical Student Mental Health and Well-Being

Earlier this month, Weill Cornell Medicine, in partnership with the Association of American Medical Colleges, Associated Medical Schools of New York, and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, hosted the National Conference on Medical Student Mental Health and Well-Being.

Medical students experience higher rates of psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation, compared to peers in the general population.  While much needed attention is currently being focused on clinician well-being within the medical community, it is time to concentrate more fully on medical students as well.

The National Conference on Medical Student Mental Health and Well-Being is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary forum to examine the mental health needs of medical students.  Bringing together leading experts in the field, medical school administrators and faculty, mental health professionals, and medical students, it seeks to better understand the causes of psychological distress in this population.  Key goals are to identify new and improved strategies for detection, treatment, and prevention of mental illness in medical students, as well as innovative methods for fostering greater resilience and well-being, that can be implemented at medical schools around the country.

UK’s General Medical Council: Welcomed and Valued

The UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) has recently launched a podcast series dedicated to disability in medicine. It's called Able medics and it came about as the GMC spoke with medical students and doctors with disabilities to develop its guidance document called "Welcomed and valued."

The "Welcomed and valued" guidance is advisory, to help organisations consider how best to support medical students and doctors in training. The guidance refers to statutory requirements for medical schools and organisations involved in postgraduate training, and provides practical suggestions for organisations to consider.

The guidance is split into the following six sections:

1. Welcomed and valued: Health and disability in medicine
2. Welcomed and valued: Our involvement as a professional regulator
3. Welcomed and valued: What is expected of medical education organisations and employers?
4. Welcomed and valued: How can medical schools apply their duties?
5. Welcomed and valued: Transition from medical school to Foundation training
6. Welcomed and valued: How can postgraduate educators apply their duties?

Learn more about "Welcomed and valued."

Access the "Able medics" podcast series.