Volume 11 Issue 7 July, 2021
Editorials
A Decade Of MINDs Newsletter Journey
Psychiatry took its shape as a medical specialty even before 1808 when Johann Christian Reil coined the term “Psychiatry”. Various psychiatry training programs have evolved, and psychiatry established as a medical speciality. The growing number of trainees and seats in psychiatry reflects the felt need for more mental health professionals in the country.
Despite increasing numbers of postgraduates in the county, the proportionate emphasis on psychiatry training at the undergraduate level is grossly lacking. Inadequate exposure to psychiatry training at the undergraduate level reflected a disparity attitude to psychiatry.
There are several efforts to reboot psychiatry training, the debate of enhancing psychiatry training, increase the duration and even a separate paper on psychiatry in the final MBBS exam. The whole idea is to have a favourable attitude and basic understanding of psychiatry in other parallel specialities of medicine. One of such efforts is to motivate undergraduates to know more about psychiatry by easy access to enjoyable informative material such as a newsletter.
MINDs newsletter specially design in keeping the requirement of undergraduates and encourage them for active participation. Newsletter like Minds helps bridge the gap in several ways; enjoyable crosswords, fun facts, articles by senior peoples in psychiatry can inspire and invoke genuine interest in psychiatry among students.
In 2021, MINDs newsletter completed its ten years, becoming the oldest psychiatry newsletter in the country. This is something remarkable for us, reflecting students’ interest and zeal to know more about human behaviours.
The 10th year of MINDs Newsletter was celebrated by holding an online program honoured by the gracious presence of renowned academicians of the country and office bearers of the Indian Psychiatry Society.
