GP Tutors Conference 2017

We have two plenary speakers this year:

• Prof Debbie Cohen OBE will discuss her research around disclosure of mental ill health in doctors and medical students and how 'disclosure options' are perceived by those who are unwell. She will also discuss how to interpret some of the self-assessment tools for common mental health conditions and the pitfalls of using population data on specific cohorts. The question being are we medicalizing normal responses to stress? How can we use this research to provide safer and more proactive support to students' who are in need? 
• Prof Chris Dowrick will talk about how suffering and hope shape GP's practice and their interactions with patients and students. He will discuss our ambivalence with regard to acknowledging suffering; how despite our best intentions we often find it hard to really listen to our patient's distress; and suggest some things that might help us to listen better. He will explore how we can offer hope to patients in distress: through compassion, by being thoughtfully positive, from the discovery and application of new knowledge, and perhaps by changing the ways in which we think about ourselves and our patients.   

We are offering a broad range of workshops about the Mind in Medical Education. These will include discussion of maintaining GP's well-being (as teachers and practitioners); supporting students well-being; and teaching about patient mental health. We will also explore how we think about general practice placements within medical education and various elements of current culture which support or constrain change.

Morning Workshops - 'The Learner'

• Schwartz Groups - Faye Gishen
• Getting in to Medical School - Sarah Bennett
• Student well-being - Will Coppola
• How are general practice placements made thinkable? - Sophie Park and Vitor Barreto

Afternoon Workshops - 'The Teacher'

• Well-being in GPs - Marta Buszewicz and Ruth Riley
• Mindfulness - Paquita de Zulueta
• Developing your Career as a GP Teacher - John Barber and Jenny Hopwood
• Resilience - Chantal Simon

For the final session of the day, we are planning to invite tutors to join their 'year group' around a table for informal discussion and updates. The session will aim to promote communication between tutors, course leads and course administrators.

Hopefully this session will provide a useful opportunity for you to discuss placements as a current or potential tutor and facilitate the exchange of teaching ideas. We will lay out tables for each group and provide some drinks and nibbles to complement the session.

Topics:

• iBSc - inter-calculated BSc in Primary Care 
• Core GP (Year 5)
• Core GP (Year 6) 
• Coop and MiC
• ICCM and on-site taught courses
• Year 5 speciality teaching 

Books

• The Mindful Manifesto.  Jonty Heaversedge and Ed Halliwell (2012) Hay House.
• Mindful London: How to Find Calm and Contentment in the Chaos of the City. Tessa Watt (2014) Virgin Books.
• Wherever you go - there you are. Jon Kabat-Zinn (2004) Piatkus.
• Sane New World - Taming the Mind. Ruby Wax (2014) Hodder paperbacks.
• Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Finding Peace in a Frantic World.  Mark Williams and Danny Penman (2011) Piatkus.

Websites

• For the latest research and to keep up to date with new publications in the field: http://www.mindfulexperience.org/evidence-base.php
• A good website to look at/ recommend to patients is www.bemindful.co.uk which is run by the Mental Health Foundation. It has information on mindfulness, patient videos, info on local courses and also a four week online course (recently subject of pilot study in BMJ Open).
• If you are interested in teacher training/ masterclasses/ retreats: www.oxfordmindfulness.org . They run great one day masterclasses eg Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy for Cancer  - Trish Bartley (also recommend her book 'MBCT for Cancer: turning towards gently'); Mindfulness in the NHS; Breathworks approach to Chronic Pain, Illness and Stress - Vidyalma Burch; Mindfulness Based Childbirth and Parenting.
• www.breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk  - mindfulness courses focused on chronic pain/ chronic illness. Includes online Mindfulness for Health Course and links to local 8 week courses. (Book: Mindfulness for Health - Vidyamala Burch and Danny Penman. She also does masterclass on this in Oxford - see above).
• www.headspace.com (free 10 day app with 10 minute guided meditations, and then you can subscribe to various guided meditation courses).
• www.breathingspacelondon.org.uk  . Runs various courses in MBCT, MBSR, Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention, Kindness Behavioural Training etc. Some of these courses are free to Tower Hamlets/ Hackney residents.

Apps

Headspace - iOS and Android versions, from the Headspace.com team

Mindfulness TS - iOS and Android versions

The Mindfulness App UK - iOS, Android and Windows Phone versions

Other

http://www.mindful.org/mindfulness-and-doctor-burnout/ is an interesting online magazine article on burnout in medical professionals. 

Professor Debbie Cohen discusses the complex issue of doctors' mental health