Prize-winning student finds insight and inspiration at national conference
Student Doctor and LivPsych President Will Smith has had quite a month. In the same week, he attended the British Indian Psychiatric Association (BIPA) Conference 2021 as this year’s student doctor essay prize winner, and had one of his articles published in the BMJ.
"I heard about the BIPA Conference and essay prize on Twitter through LivPsych. One of the perks of being part of a society is that you get to hear about events that are happening first hand, especially when the organisers contact you and ask you to share with other students! We put everything on our website (link) as well as on social media.
Going to conferences can be a little bit intimidating at first but they’re a really good way to meet people – either for the first time or who you’ve only ever connected with online.
The theme of this year’s conference was "Culture, Ethnicity and Psychiatry” and I was really interested to hear from the President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Dr Adrian James and one of the Race and Equality Leads, Dr Raj Mohan. The conference was also offering free admission to student doctors so I was sold!
I was particularly interested to attend as well as enter an essay because I felt they related well to work that I’ve done in the past, including the ‘How to be an anti-racist Mental Health Researcher’ event series (link) with LivPsych, as well as my RS3 project which explored the need for culturally appropriate tools to screen for ASD in different settings around the world. I had also explored linguistic relativity during my undergraduate degree at King’s College London.
These three experiences formed the primary points of my essay, entitled ‘How do culture and language influence diagnosis and prognosis in psychiatry?’ which also reflects an ongoing movement in decolonisation anti-racism both in medicine and wider society.
So honoured to win this prize, thank you to @bipa_uk for the opportunity - hope to be back for the next conference! https://t.co/n9NoayTJnZ
— Will Smith (@wlil_sitmh) November 14, 2021
The conference was really special. Not only did I have the chance to hear from Dr James and Dr Mohan, but also attended a panel discussion featuring four different diaspora psychiatry associations, as well as learning more about the cultural barriers for international medical graduates who come to the UK to practice medicine - experiences that I hadn’t had the chance to learn about before.
I even had the opportunity to meet Dr James, Dr Mohan and many others, including Dr Trudi Seneviratne who famously featured in the Louis Theroux documentary, Mothers on the Edge.
Meeting important doctors in the field is not only exciting, but also a chance to think about and be inspired by where your career might go next.
Earlier that same week, Will’s article on electives was picked up by the BMJ (link). Congratulations Will on your achievements! And thanks for your sharing your experience with us.
Covid-19 put a pause to overseas electives. We should use this time to consider whether the advantages of overseas electives can be justified, when they hold both potential for harm and an underlying sentiment that is somewhat troubling, says @wlil_sitmh https://t.co/dDVEf19KI2
— The BMJ (@bmj_latest) November 11, 2021
Discover more
- Passionate about Psychiatry? Take a look at the LivPsych website (link) packed with resources and information. Join the society via the Guild (link).
- Read Will’s prize-winning essay ‘How do culture and language influence diagnosis and prognosis in psychiatry?’ in full on the LivPsych blog (link).
- Learn more about the British Indian Psychiatric Association (BIPA) from their website (link).
- Read Will’s piece ‘The colonial overtones of overseas electives should make us rethink this practice’ in the BMJ (link).