Connect
MJA
MJA

A campaign to improve the mental health of medical students

Jessica M Dean, Edward R Scheffer Cliff, Karen Freilich and Molly Gilfillan
Med J Aust 2016; 204 (9): . || doi: 10.5694/mja15.01338
Published online: 16 May 2016

Australian medical students responded swiftly and effectively to the increased burden of mental illness in the medical profession, which was highlighted by the 2013 beyondblue National Mental Health Survey.1 In 2012, medical student representatives from Australia’s 20 medical schools passed a health and wellbeing policy,2 then in 2013, voted student mental health as a top advocacy priority for the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA), choosing to advocate for the mental health of all tertiary students through development of the AMSA Mental Health campaign.


  • 1 Monash Health, Melbourne, VIC
  • 2 Monash University, Melbourne, VIC
  • 3 University of Western Australia, Perth, WA


Correspondence: jessicamaedean@gmail.com

Acknowledgements: 

We acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the AMSA Mental Health Campaign Project Team in 2014 and 2015, specifically Ruth McLeod and Subalatha Devaraja for their work on Academy of the Mind, David Townsend for his support with the logo, branding and website, and Brian Fernandes for his work in the expansion of Blue Week. We also acknowledge the work and support of all three National Executives of the Australian Medical Students’ Association between 2013 and 2015, the major campaign partner and campaign partners , Orygen Youth Health, the Australian Medical Association, the Young and Well Cooperative Research Centre, and Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand. Other active supporters of the campaign include Jayashri Kulkarni, Patrick McGorry AO, Sally Cockburn, Mukesh Haikawel AO, Stephen Parnis and The Hon Jeff Kennett.

Competing interests:

Jessica Dean is currently a Director of , but was appointed in 2015, after her role in the AMSA Mental Health Campaign had concluded.

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.