The programme aims to provide medical students with ten tools to aid with suicide prevention and offer them practical initiatives in self-care which is crucial for our future doctors. In November the training was run in person – a first for both KMMS and Olly’s Future.
Nikisha MacBride, KMMS Year 2 student says:
Dr SAMS was a fantastic and impactful day of training, as medical students we are all concerned about how to have difficult conversations and Dr SAMS didn’t shy away from those topics and it was empowering to see the ways we could do these conversations well and the impact that this could have on people around us. It was such an engaging day that the topics we discussed will stay with me for a long time’
Dr Julia Hynes, Academic lead for student life and wellbeing at KMMS says: It is essential that our students engage in various learning activities about suicide prevention which speak to the GMC’s Outcomes for Graduates.
I would like to thank our students for taking part in this programme and all those who were involved in its organisation and delivery at Olly’s Future and KMMS, with a special note of gratitude to Kent County Council for funding this important initiative.
Ann Feloy, founder and CEO of Olly’s Future says:
I lost my beloved son Oliver to suicide when he was 22 years old – the age a lot of these medical students are. My charity’s mission is that ‘no young person should lose their lives to suicide’ and so the work we do in equipping medical students with suicide prevention skills, along with self-care techniques, is not only important for them during their studies but vital in their future careers as medical professionals.
We are delighted to bring this programme to KMMS and to see it develop from being online to a face-to-face delivery, meeting the very students who will go on to save lives from suicide in their careers.