Creation and evaluation of a student-based programme on the knowledge of mental health services and the prevention of depression, anxiety and burnout syndrome in medical students: The Sentinel Student Programme Study

Abstract

Worldwide, in Spain and in Catalonia, mental health conditions are one of the most prevalent health burdens that society is struggling with. University students and especially medical students are no different from the rest, presenting even higher proportions of emotional discomfort. In addition, measures to solve this predicament from a public mental health perspective have been scarce and evidence on their effectiveness has been very heterogeneous and of poor quality, with students not knowing how to access or use this resources or services. Therefore, it is the aim of this investigation to create and evaluate a student-based mentoring programme (Sentinel Student Programme) developed to assist students in the access to already existing mental health services, as well as to evaluate the impact on their mental health, particularly in depression, anxiety and burnout symptoms, and their selfawareness abilities hypothesising that it will not worsen the situation and will give them more insight capacity together with better knowledge of the mental health services available fostering students autonomy. To do this, a pilot test will be set up with a prepost quasi-experimental design that will take place at Girona’s School of Medicine aiming to cover all medical students between fifth and first year. Results have proven that changes in pre-post programme favour the utility, feasibility and preliminary security of the Sentinel Student Programme with no significant changes in the pre-post prevalence of depression, anxiety and burnout symptoms and no major differences between those students who participated as sentinels and those who didn’t together with a considerable increase in mental health services’ knowledge. For these reasons, considering limitations linked to the study design and sample size, it can be concluded that future implementation of the Sentinel Student Programme is possible and future research is needed to prove its efficacy in the prevention of mental health disorders and the promotion of mental wellbeing

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