Educators Pave Innovative Paths to Teaching About Mental Illness

Five outstanding education projects geared toward medical students have earned recognition and grant funding as part of a new APA program introduced this summer.

Under the Innovative Teaching Grant awards program five outstanding medical-student educators received grants of $5,000 each from APA to fund projects designed to instruct medical students about specialized areas of psychiatry.

The teaching projects cover a variety of topics ranging from the stigma surrounding mental illness to smoking cessation.

“These innovative teaching awards encourage better integration of psychiatry throughout the medical-school curriculum,” said Deborah Hales, M.D., director of APA's Division of Education and Career Development, in an interview with Psychiatric News. “An additional benefit may be increased recruitment into psychiatry, since outstanding teachers are one of the most important influences on specialty choice.”

Members of APA's Corresponding Committee on Medical Student Education chose the grant recipients based on the level of innovation demonstrated by the curriculum, the ability to replicate the program in other academic settings, and the degree to which the curriculum generated or was likely to generate interest in psychiatry among medical students. The grants could go to existing or proposed programs.

The projects chosen encourage medical-student participation that extends beyond didactics so that the students can better understand the experiences of those living with mental illness and get an in-depth view of some of the issues psychiatrists deal with on a regular basis.

For instance, medical-student participation is an essential part of the project for which Janis Cutler, M.D., won an APA grant. She is director of medical-student education in psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Cutler's project, “Changing Perspectives: Reducing the Stigma of Mental Illness in Medical Students Through the Living Museum Project,” conveys patients' experiences through their artistic expression.

The so-called “living museum,” Cutler explained, is an art studio located in the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, N.Y., which was cofounded and is directed by Janos Martin, Ph.D.

The students' visits occur in small groups, which enables them to interact with several patient-artist guides who present and describe their artwork during the visits.

“Our hope is that this exposure will demonstrate the humanity, individuality, and creative potential of individuals suffering from chronic and severe psychiatric disorders, thus reducing stigmatization of this underserved population among future physicians,” Cutler told Psychiatric News.

She explained that APA funding will enable approximately 150 first- and second-year medical students to be transported to and from the museum.

Previously, she noted, funding limits meant that only 20 third-year medical students participating in psychiatry clerkships had the opportunity to visit the museum and interact with the patient-artist guides.

Another program that received APA funding emphasizes prevention and management of metabolic syndrome among people with serious mental illness.

Jason Rosenstock, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatry and director of medical-student education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has implemented what he calls a “mini-elective” for second-year students who are interested in the treatment of mental illness.

As part of the month-long course, six to eight students receive didactic teaching on lifestyle-change strategies, including weight management and diabetes prevention for people with serious mental illness. They then apply what they have learned by working with patients to coach them to achieve mutually established goals under close supervision of psychiatry faculty members.

APA funding will provide honoraria for faculty time and resources for teaching.

Rosenstock and his colleagues also plan to study the impact of the curriculum on medical students, he noted.

These are the three additional grant-winning programs and their directors:

“A School-Based Medical Student Curriculum for Education in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry,” led by Justine Larson, M.D., M.P.H., at Johns Hopkins University; “Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Open-Access Curriculum on Child/Youth Psychiatry for Medical Students and Other Trainees,” directed by Derek Puddester, M.D., of the University of Ottawa School of Medicine; and “Smoking-Cessation Groups Led by Medical Students in Inpatient and Outpatient Settings,” led by Marie Rueve, M.D., of Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine.

The five projects chosen will be featured in a symposium at APA's next annual meeting, which will be held in San Francisco May 16 to 21, 2009.

More information about APA's Innovative Teaching Grant program is posted at<www.psych.org/MainMenu/EducationCareerDevelopment/EducationalInitiatives/EducatingaNewGenerationofPsychiatrists/teachinggrant.aspx>.▪