Student Psychiatry Society 2022 overview
Student Psychiatry video
The UCT Student Psychiatry Society was started in 2015, by David Backwell. His goal was to integrate extra-curricular mental health opportunities into the Health Sciences Campus at UCT. This was inspired by the founding statement: ‘to explore psychiatry as the point in medicine where humanities overlap with the sciences.’
We believe that psychiatry sits at the forefront of medicine, with advances happening from a chemical level, to neuro-imaging and even the community aspect of mental health. With this in mind, considering that many site the shortcomings of psychiatry to adequately explain the actual workings of the mind, we wish to emphasise opportunities that discard such opinions. We are motivated to provide opportunities for innovative work, patient-centred research and new approaches needed to push the frontiers of knowledge.
And in the gap between expanding knowledge and current clinical or real-life interactions, Da Sylva's words come to mind: 'to cure sometimes, to relieve often, to comfort always'.
We welcome student members from all faculties. Whilst we have traditionally been health sciences-focused, we have expanded our reach to include committee members and attendees from other backgrounds, including psychology, literature, and science. In this, we aim to facilitate discussions around psychiatric and mental health topics that include a variety of perspectives.
We host events that put knowledge across in engaging and novel ways. This has included movie screenings, talks from clinicians and researchers, panel discussions blending lived experience and clinical expertise, and other initiatives. We also wish to respond to societal issues around mental health, as well as linking mental health to neuroscientific, surgical and medical fields, through collaboration with other UCT societies.
Please reach out to us if you are:
- A student looking to learn more about psychiatry and mental health outside of a classroom setting
- A researcher wanting to share your work or recruit students to work on their projects
- A speaker or educator willing to present on your area of expertise
- A non-profit organisation in need of some extra hands for outreach initiatives
- A student society interested in collaborating with us
- Someone with an interest in our work who doesn't fall into any of the previous categories
We look forward to hearing from you and receiving any advice, help, or critique that you may offer.
Look forward to hearing from you:
Instagram: @uctpsychsoc