VIPSIG Essay and Video Prizes

Winner

• Baher Ibrahim. Public Mental Health Volunteering in Egypt and the Making of a Psychiatric Career: A Reflective Essay (CT1)

Runner-up

• Chiara Buhagiar. How Psychiatry has Affected My Experience of Voluntary Work and Vice Versa - A Reflection (CT3)

Winner

• Zahra Legris. Mental health in conflict: research and voluntary experience of NGO work in the occupied Palestinian territories. (CT2)
•  Mario Lepore. ‘More Than Just Food’ – A Reflective Essay. (CT1)
•  Leigh Milne. “The Living Room; A place to Feel at Home.” (Medical Student)
•  Camilla Walker. The Importance of Culturally Minded Practice for International Psychiatry: A Review of the Anthropological Critique on the Cross-Cultural Validity of PTSD. (FY1)

Runner-up

• Adam Boggon. Moral Injury. (SHO/ Clinical Teaching Fellow)

Commendations 

• Jenna Fielding. The effects of music on mood and cognition: supporting the national drive to marry up music and medicine. (Medical Student)
• Anna Iankovitch. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Reflection. (Medical Student)

We're announcing this year's winners on May 25 on the wishes of Dr Zafrina Majid, whose essay received a commendation. This is in memory of her sibling Dr Syad Arshad Abbas, who passed away on this date in 2011. We've included a few words from her below.

Winners

Shaheen Sardar. Familial Relationships: A Protective or Detrimental Factor against Psychiatric Conditions in Female Refugees? (Medical Student)

Sarah Parry. Mental Health Services in Cambodia: research and reflection.

Runners-up

Gunjan Sharma. East vs West: Psychiatry in the Himalayas. (CT1)

Natalie Cook. SKIP: Emotional Wellbeing Interventions. (ST4)

Commendations

Fiona Martin. Volunteering in a mental health service in Uganda: challenges and rewards. (ST4)

Zafrina Majid. What Appears to be the End, May Really Be a New Beginning. (ST4)

"May 25, 2011 will remain forever etched on my mind. On that fateful day, Dr. Syed Arshad Abbas, my sibling, left us suddenly without saying a goodbye. He was accompanying a critically ill patient in an air ambulance which crashed in New Delhi; there were no survivors in that air crash.

At 34, he had a mission for promoting voluntary health related work, benefitting some of the poorest of the poor. In keeping with his mission, I have travelled to my parental home in Kashmir, every year since 2011, to carry out voluntary work for a charitable trust established in his memory. I am grateful to the RCPsych team for considering to publish my article, based on this work, on May 25, 2020, which coincides with his death anniversary. Getting published on this date will give me an immense sense of comfort and fulfilment and recognition that it is worthwhile sharing such work internationally and continuing his mission in future.

A special thanks to Mark Tuner, Mandip Jheeta and Kit Richardson for making this happen."

Winner

• Hosam Elhamoui & Mustafa Alachkar. Adapting UK-based Mental Health Skills to Suit Working with Syrian Refugees (PDF). (STs)

Runners-up

• Jan Klimach. Lost in Translation – some reflections on experience working and teaching in Malawi in 2016 (PDF). (ST4)
• Samuel Trethewey. My Memorable Elective Experience: Working with Homeless People and Project LIGHT (PDF). (FY1)

Commendations

• Claude Shema. Outreach Psychiatry Volunteering Experience with Aboriginal Communities in Canada. (MSc)
• Andrea Meredith. Mental health services in Cambodia. (ST5)

Winner

• Shaheen Zinna. Me, Myself and Volunteering (PDF). (CT3)

Runner-up

• Peter McGovern. Decentralisation of Psychiatric Services in Zanzibar (PDF). (CT2)
  

Commendations

• Grace Harris. “Blood, Sweat and Tears” – The psychiatry of PPE. Reflections of an out of programme experience in Sierra Leone (PDF). (CT2)
• Callum McKell. Mental illness in Palestinian refugees living in refugee camps in Jordan: barriers to access and use of mental health care services and recommendations to overcome such barriers (PDF). (Medical Student)

Winner

• Helena Wells. MedMinds: A Mental Health Education Programme delivered by voluntary Medical Students from the University of Birmingham to local school students (PDF). (Medical Student)

Runner-up

• Vanessa Hayter. Reflections on the hidden burden of female mental illness in the Solomon Islands (PDF). (FY1)