Medical Society: Psychiatry Chair

I’m running for Psych Soc chair with a plan, and with experience. I know the committee and the society, having been Conference Officer this year, a role that involved working closely with the former chair to deliver an outstanding event. I’ve got experience coordinating a large team as RUMS Academic Vice-President for years 4-6, in charge of more than 60 student reps across 11 hospital sites. My interest in and connections to academic psychiatry and the Royal College are strong: I’m Assistant Editor of the RCPsych Philosophy Special Interest newsletter.

I believe that the Psychiatry Society could be taking greater advantage of UCL’s strong psychiatry research division. Under my chairmanship, we will establish formal links with academics and researchers at the Division through our existing contacts, with a view to allowing students insight and a potential route into research in the field. This year’s conference was a marked success, recruiting a broad range of eminent speakers and increasing the number of conference attendees. I will build on that success and make the annual conference a fixture in the intellectual life of medicine at UCL, as well as continuing successful mentorship and events programmes.

I have a plan, and I have the experience to deliver it. I would be grateful for your vote.

Hi I’m Saarah, and I’m running to be Psychiatry Society Chair. I’ve found serving as a Mentorship Lead for the society’s flagship scheme extremely rewarding, and I would love to broaden my focus by applying my skills and enthusiasm to developing the society as a whole.

This year, I served as Chair of the Institute of Medical Ethics Student Council, where I recruited and coordinated a team of over 10 medical students to deliver projects including an 80+ participant national conference and monthly articles. I would like to use this experience of running a medical student committee to:

• Increase in-person events to build a stronger network of students interested in psychiatry.
• Strengthen our relationship with the UCL Psychiatry Department to create more opportunities for shadowing, site visits, and conversations with psychiatrists.
• Expand our competitive mentorship scheme by recruiting more psychiatrists, allowing even more students to benefit from one-to-one mentoring.
• Increase collaborative events to increase awareness and challenge misconceptions of psychiatry and mental health among the broader cohort of students

Psychiatry is an exciting and evolving field in which interest is growing rapidly among medical trainees. I’d love to make Psychiatry Society as effective as it can at providing students inspiring opportunities to learn more about it.

Thank you for considering me to be your Chair!