"Don't Look Up": Eco-anxiety presenting in a Community Mental Health Service.

This case report discusses a 25-year-old male who was referred to community mental health services from primary care with symptoms of anxiety and depression related to climate change, which the referring clinician believed were of delusional intensity. This case report gives the history of his interaction with the service. A literature review is performed noting the dearth of case reports in this area and a subsequent discussion charts the emerging literature on mental health issues related to climate change. Finally the paper makes some broad recommendations for mental health practitioners on how to approach these issues.

An approach to teaching psychiatry to medical students in the time of Covid-19.

In this time of Covid-19, life in healthcare has changed immeasurably. It has rapidly been injected with an 'all hands-on deck' approach, to facilitate the necessary adaptations required to reduce the spread of the virus and deliver frontline clinical care. Inevitably aspects of these changes have disrupted the delivery of medical education, notably clinical placements have been cancelled and social distancing guidelines prohibit face-to-face teaching. The training of future doctors is an essential part of this effort. Indeed, the emergence of a global health threat has underlined its continued importance. For medical educators and students alike, we have been presented with a challenge. Concurrently, this presents us with an impetus and opportunity for innovation. For some time now, a transformation in medical education has been called for, with an increasing recognition of the need to prepare students for the changing landscape of healthcare systems. This has included a focus on the use of technology-enhanced and self-directed learning. As a team of educators and clinicians in psychiatry, working in the School of Medicine and Medical Sciences (SMMS) in University College Dublin (UCD), we will share how we have responded. We outline the adaptations made to our 'Psychiatry' module and consider the influence this may have on its future delivery. These changes were informed by direct student input.

A comparison of undergraduate teaching of psychiatry across medical schools in the Republic of Ireland.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the delivery and assessment of psychiatry at undergraduate level in the six medical schools in the Republic of Ireland offering a medical degree programme. METHODS: A narrative description of the delivery and assessment of psychiatry at undergraduate level by collaborative senior faculty members from all six universities in Ireland. RESULTS: Psychiatry is integrated to varying degrees across all medical schools. Clinical experience in general adult psychiatry and sub-specialities is provided by each medical school; however, the duration of clinical attachment varies, and the provision of some sub-specialities (i.e. forensic psychiatry) is dependent on locally available resources. Five medical schools provide 'live' large group teaching sessions (lectures), and all medical schools provide an array of small group teaching sessions. Continuous assessment encompasses 10-35% of the total assessment marks, depending on the medical school. Only one medical school does not provide a clinical examination in the form of an Objective Structured Clinical Examination with viva examinations occurring at three medical schools. CONCLUSIONS: Many similarities exist in relation to the delivery of psychiatry at undergraduate level in Ireland. Significant variability exists in relation to assessment with differences in continuous assessment, written and clinical exams and the use of vivas noted. The use of e-learning platforms has increased significantly in recent years, with their role envisaged to include cross-disciplinary teaching sessions and analysis of examinations and individual components within examinations which will help refine future examinations and enable greater sharing of resources between medical schools.