• Fighting the Mental Illness Stigma: Medical Students hold Mental Health Awareness Campaign
Fighting the Mental Illness Stigma: Medical Students hold Mental Health Awareness Campaign
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Three medical students from Pengiran Anak Puteri Rashidah Sa’adatul Bolkiah Institute of HealthSciences (PAPRSB IHS) organised a Mental Health Awareness Campaign in conjunction with World Mental Health Day on October 10th.

With the theme “Mind Your Mind, Mind What Matters”, the campaign took place on 8th, 9th and 11thOctober with aims to raise awareness and understanding on mental health and to educate the public on how to work with people with mental illnesses.

The medical students, Abdul Hakim bin Abdul Rahman, Dk. Zafirah Hakimah Pg. Samsulbahri and Kua Pee Ling, took the initiative to combat the stigma towards mental illness and spread awareness of mental health through an exhibition, talks, movie forum and a gathering. Various interactive activities were organised for the visitors of the exhibition, which received an encouraging response from UBD students.

The campaign also featured a talk which addressed common mental health problems by Dr Hilda Ho, Head of the Department of Psychiatrics of RIPAS hospital. In addition, a mini workshop focusing on “Keeping A Good Mental Health: Automatic Thinking” was conducted.

The finale of the three-day campaign comprised a movie forum on “Silver Linings Playbook”, which shed light on mental health issues through an interactive session, where the importance of empathizing with people suffering from mental health conditions was highlighted.

To conclude the campaign, a gathering amongst participants was also carried out to realize the significance of peer support. Participants read out letters sent in by strangers and offered words of encouragement and contributed possible solutions in relation to the struggles and concerns as conveyed in the letters.

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