MMSA NEWSLETTER
message from the president Dear friends, This month MMSA welcomed our First Years to our family ! We are glad to have successfully planned a busy and informative virtual freshers’ week. The Board of Directors have kick started their Winter Programme which includes events from each standing committee to make sure that you all get a chance to participate. This week we also organised our virtual Coordinators’ Gathering where each office collected feedback from our most active members about what what we have been doing so far and also what they wish the BD to do more. Your feedback will be thoroughly evaluated and acted upon. I encourage you to read through this newsletter to get a recap of what we have been up to this past month ! Should you need to contact me, do not hesitate on president@mmsa.org.mt All the very best!
message from the president Mental Health is MMSA’s theme this year. Is mental illness a sign of weakness? Is physical illness a sign of weakness? We do not commonly associate a fractured neck of the femur or diabetes mellitus with ‘weakness’, yet people with mental illness may well be judged to be weak in some way. The causes of mental illness are complex, involving physical, psychological, social factors and a strong genetic basis. Indeed, bipolar disorder appears
to
be
strongly
represented
among
successful people, and it has been argued that mood disorder persists in populations because it may present a selective advantage in evolution. Many people whose lives have demonstrated personal strength or extraordinary ability have also suffered from mental illness eg. Winston Churchill and JK Rowling.
Let us educate and protect ourselves !
message from eb VPe MMSA at Science in the City MMSA has once again taken part in this year’s virtual Science in the City 2020. This year’s theme is that of ‘Engage, Empower and Enable’ and given the circumstances, everything was shifted online. This year we showcased our work towards research and society’s wellbeing through a series of videos suitable for all. You can view these videos through the SITC Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/352276189395289 Or through the SITC website under ‘Explore the Arches’: https://scienceinthecity.org.mt/event-details/malta-medicalstudents-association The videos include: - SCOPRE’s Medical Students and International Research - SCOPH’s Perceived Stress Scale test - SCOPET’s Children’s Health Clinic: ‘Don’t Sit, Stay Fit!’; ‘Calling 112’ ; ‘Build Your Own Lungs’ - SCOME’s Breaking the Silence - SCORA’s Diversity in Sexuality - SCORP’s Climate Change I would like to thank all the Standing Committees for their hard work in this activity, as well as the SITC team and the PRO team for the videos.
Policy Papers A new policy paper theme has been selected for this semester, on ‘Vaccinations’ and its associated misconceptions. The team working on this paper includes Katya Zerafa (VPe assistant), Catherine Gatt (Policy Coordinator) and the small working group – Enya Aquilina, Joseph Fenech, Rachel Muscat Baron, Mark Farrugia and Nathaniel Fenech.
Med Ed Project This new project, under the guidance of Katya Zerafa (VPe assistant) and the SCOPET officer Daniel Formosa, was launched on Friday 13th November with St Martin’s College Sixth Form Students. This project consists of multiple sessions given to sixth form students aspiring to enter the Medicine and Surgery course. Our aim is to give students a summary of what the course entails, answer their questions and concerns and help them choose their final career path!
Para Sport Outreach and Volunteering – An Intro Webinar On the 6th of November, the first session of this degree plus unit – DGP0260 on Para Sport Outreach and Volunteering was held. This project is organised by student organisations MMSA and MHSA in conjunction with the Malta Paralympic Committee and UoM Degree Plus Office. We received great feedback from this first webinar and are now looking forward to seeing you all for the 2nd webinar happening on Wednesday 2nd December at 12pm. This session will be focusing on Para Sport Classification and medical aspects related to para sport.
VPi Welcome Meds – The Murderer Among Us Earlier on this November, the VPi Office collaborated with the Leisure Team to organise a Welcome Meds- Murder Mystery event for our freshers! The event served to be a fun & safe way to meet and greet MMSA’s Board Members whilst also getting to know about the different roles within MMSA. We hope that all freshers who attended our event, enjoyed themselves as much as we did! We’re eager to see you again in future events!
November Feedback Forum – Coordinator’s Gathering This month’s MMSA Online Feedback Forum was organised with a difference! Together with the President’s office, the VPi team organised a virtual, worldcafe-style coordinators gathering! All MMSA’s assistants, coordinators and class representatives had the opportunity to discuss and give feedback on the current work of each office, whilst also suggesting new initiatives for future events. We thank all participants for joining us as without your feedback we wouldn’t be the large active organsiation that we are today.
SecGen
This month, the SecGen team have been at full steam ahead with preparations for the first ever online TRD. The TRD OC has been hard at work with putting together a set of online sessions for our first years, as well as an online scavenger in hunt in collaboration with the Leisure team. Stay up to date on the TRD Facebook page for more!
SCOPRE SCOPRE has had a very busy month in the lead-up to the release of Exchanges’ applications. Our social media campaign of throwbacks served to kindle interest in students, which continued to grow thanks to an extremely successful Globetrotters workshop. Featuring a wide variety of speakers and with over 140 MMSA members in attendance, this was the biggest edition yet and served as the perfect build-up to the release of SCOPRE’s very first Outgoings’ Exchanges’ booklet. The 90-page brochure contains everything that students need to know prior to applying for their 2021 exchange, complete with in-depth notes of every country available, an overview of the application process and a comprehensive FAQ section; in addition to the usual table of countries and exchanges spots. Read the booklet here: https://issuu.com/mmsa/docs/scopre_exchanges_booklet_design As the Provisional Points Ranking has now been uploaded, this is also a reminder that the Final Points Ranking will be out on the 30th of November. As such, any points queries should be addressed to Miguel Vella preferably before the 29th so they can be solved in time. Applications for exchanges will be out on the 1st of December and will remain open until the 9th of December.
ELECTIVES Throughout November the Electives Team has kept hard at work. We participated in the annual event Globetrotters, giving our members more information about medical electives, especially throughout this pandemic. Unfortunately, Incoming medical electives have been further postponed to April, news which we have had to convey to the students who had applied. Nonetheless, more students are now looking forward to a time when electives in Malta will commence, several already having applied from April onwards. We have also taken this as an opportunity to increase our social media presence by designing several posters we are sure you are going to love! Make sure to keep an eye out for our Facebook page, where these will be posted regularly addressing both incoming and outgoing students.
SCOpet Peer Education Our annual Peer Education workshop, in collaboration with SCORA and SCORP, designed to prepare MMSA members to start delivering MMSA’s peer education sessions to children and adolescents. Around 70 MMSA members participated in this workshop!
SCOpet Training Our 1st Training Tuesdays workshop, in collaboration with SCORA and SCORP, with training sessions about human rights and sexual health peer education facilitated by experienced IFMSA trainers! Around 40 MMSA members participated!
SCOME SCOME was in for another busy month as November rolled around. We started off the month by welcoming the incoming Freshers' with a jam-packed Freshers' Week programme where, over the course of a few days, we introduced them to medical school, MMSA, and made them feel welcome in our ever-growing MMSA family. This also coincided with the start of the Buddy for a Year system which was tailor made to make First Years feel as welcome as possible.
Following five months of non-stop work, our Academics team has released Anki flashcards which have been tailor-made to suit the needs of MD2 students for this semester. Other flashcard decks will be released in the near future but till then we encourage everyone to use these flashcards to aid in your studies!
SCOME Following up on the successful History Taking Workshop campaign held for MD3s last month, the next event in our Practice Makes Perfect campaign was a Psychiatric History Taking workshop which was open to MD4s and aimed to better prepare them for their psychiatry rotations. Different small groups sessions were held both physically (abiding to all health regulations) and virtually via Zoom. This allowed students to pick which mode of learning they preferred for the sessions.
Finally, a fruitful meeting with the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery led to clarifications over a few topics regarding attendance, exams and degree accreditation; the details of which were posted on the respective MD Facebook group.Despite all the challenges thrown our way this year, we are extremely happy with the work done so far and are looking forward for a busy December ahead!"
SCOph As usual, November is always a busy month for SCOPH. Apart from hosting Mind - Heart - Body which was SCOPH’s biggest campaign we also celebrated World Diabetes Day and welcomed our freshers with a BYOB session.
Early November we collaborated with SCOPR and the Junior Chamber of Advocates to host the Under the Influence | A medico-legal analysis. This brought together medical and law students in a discussion on the medical and legal repercussions of intoxication with professional guest speakers from Doctors for Road Safety, Caritas, a criminal lawyer as well as a judge.
14th November is always an important day in the SCOPH calendar as it is International World Diabetes Day. Even though this year we couldn’t host our usual big event in Valletta, it is still important to raise awareness about this disease that's so prevalent in the Maltese population. We managed to achieve perfectly just this by doing a Live Facebook Q&A session with Prof Stephen Fava.
SCOph The healthy lifestyles team put up a special edition of Boost Your Own Body (BYOB) to welcome the freshers. With several small groups and stations around University, we managed to get them moving, giving them the perfect introduction to BYOB while always keeping it safe. Finally, we held Mind - Heart - Body which was our biggest campaign that put all our work into one big campaign to promote holistic health. The entire SCOPH team was involved in this.To kick it off we hosted the workshop in preparation for the event. In total we had 4 sessions and participants had the option to choose online or in person. Those who joined us in person had their first opportunity to try out blood glucose.
The main event was online and was open to the general public. It started off with a few words from Prof Victor Grech followed by Malta Red Cross. After which, the members from the general public were placed in breakout rooms with our members where they had a more personalised and interactive discussion about health. This event was very well received by our members and the public alike so we look forward to more!
SCOrp Another busy month has passed by with our campaigns having even more events. One of our main focuses this month was Peer Ed. We first started off with joining SCOPET in the Peer Ed Workshop for all MMSA members, where we briefed eager students on how to properly give our Peer Ed talks, the content they would be talking about and just generally giving them information about SCORP and what we do. Defending Your Rights, Mental Health, and Refugee Health all held Peer Ed talks with the first two hosting talks for various secondary schools and sixth forms and the latter holding the first ever talk of its kind for the Migrant Induction Hub in Naxxar. Defending Your Rights Peer Ed talks shed light on Human Rights, what they are and what we can do to protect them not only for us but for all those around us in particular interest to people with disabilities, gender based violence and gender equality, human trafficking, and sexuality. Mental Health Peer Ed sessions educate younger generations on the importance of mental health and the de-stigmatisation of it. A person’s health does not only include physical well-being but also encompasses the mental aspects of it and we aim to normalise talking about it and taking care of it through such sessions. The Migrant Induction Hub talk was an introductory session that focused on mental health with regards to migrant children moving to a new country, especially during this uncertain time of a pandemic. We tried to equip them with simple tips on how to be aware of their mental health and how to make sure that they remain healthy.
SCOrp SCORP had its second Peace of Mind Podcast in collaboration with Mental Health of Medics, another great success. This time round we spoke about mindfulness and its impact on holistic health, and how we, as medical students, can implement it into our day to day life. The guest speaker for this episode was Petra Spiteri- a mother of two boys and wife to a medical doctor. Petra is an accredited mindfulness trainer for adults and children. She runs mindfulness courses to help clients reduce anxiety, stress, reactivity and worry and improve emotional awareness and resilience.
Next up was the first ever JCA x MMSA (SCOPH & SCORP- Aware in Care) collaboration, where we hosted a medico-legal seminar about drug and alcohol abuse which was a follow up of last month’s Aware in Care webinar “Aware in Care – Above the Influence”. This seminar tackled substance abuse, from both the medical and legal perspectives, specifically focusing on intoxication and criminal liability. Along with all of this we are proud that an article was published on The Third Eye by one of our Aware in Care coordinators, Leonie Mifsud, “Breaking the stigma surrounding drug abuse”.
December will undoubtably be another full month for SCORP with even more Peer Ed sessions and another podcast episode this time focusing on how the holidays can affect one's mental health. Particularly mental health issues associated with the holidays, loneliness and isolation,and depression.
SCOra November has been a very busy month for SCORA! We kicked off our Peer Education campaign with all three sessions being given at the schools St Thomas More and St Aloysius College! MMSA members had an opportunity to put their presentation skills into practice by giving our online Sex Ed sessions.
November also saw us execute our LGBTQIA+ Lockdown event which has been in the works since summer! At this event we invited two external speakers, with help from ARC, that form part of the LGBTQIA+ community to discuss their experience within our society as an LGBTQIA+ individual. We held this event over Zoom for those who would like to ask questions, as well as going live on Facebook for all to witness and learn about these important topics.
SCOra
November is also the month revolving around men’s health awareness and is referred to as ‘Movember’! In Movember spirit, MMSA-SCORA in collaboration with our sponsor Class Optical held a giveaway where our students were in the chance to win a free pair of sunglasses. The SCORA Team also organized an educational webinar which is focusing on prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health in men especially when it comes to their health! We will end our Movember with this webinar held today, 30th November! Make sure to attend our webinar for the giveaway winner announcement!
supco This month we would like to start off our newsletter by congratulating Thea Difesa, the winner of this month’s Student Spotlight. A huge well done to the other nominees, too! Your passion, hard work and determination inspire us to challenge ourselves and achieve our fitness goals. Music has been chosen as the theme for December’s edition of Student Spotlight. Deadline to nominate the singer or musician who deserves this recognition most is 1st December at 23:59. We look forward to reading your nominations and choosing yet another talented MMSA member! Supervising Council recently shared a set of posters which highlight our roles and responsibilities within MMSA. If you haven’t already been through them, you can find them on the next page of our newsletter. Furthermore, SupCo assisted in the points allocation process. This year was the first time that the Board of Directors was given a breakdown of the points which they earned. The points were all allocated during meetings held between the President, Exchanges-Out Officer and SupCo. Miguel, our Exchanges-Out Officer, launched this project in order to make sure that their points were given in a fair and impartial manner. Got any issues that you’d like to discuss with us? If yes, feel free to message any one of us on our Facebook chats or send us an email on supco@mmsa.org.mt. Alternatively, you may also use the Complaints Form available in the ‘Contact Us’ section on the MMSA website.
Leisure As November welcomed our first year medical students, Leisure geared up to host one of its most awaited annual events: Welcome Meds. This year, however, this event took a twist as the Leisure team and VPi office teamed up to convert this event into a Murder Mystery. Our freshers grouped themselves up to help expose ‘The Murderer Among Us’, the one responsible for the murder set at one of Leisure’s biggest events, the Annual Ball.
The Leisure and VPi teams worked together with the Board of Directors to film a promo video, recalling the night of this devastating murder, and so providing the viewers with the first few clues. The plot involved all of the MMSA-BD and so this event allowed freshers to get to know more about each Standing Committee and every office as they roamed around Valletta and encountered the officers who witnessed it all. In attempt to obtain more information from the witnesses, participants took part in several challenges relating to the respective office. Moreover, through this event, freshers were given the chance to get to know the other members of their team better and work together to solve this mystery*.
Leisure This event was quite the success as a total of 15 teams applied and our top 3 teams went head-to-head for top prize. Our winning team won 2 games at the Eden Superbowl per team member, whilst every member of the top 3 teams won a hand-made mask, sponsored by Unclouded. This month’s work for Leisure did not end here, as this team immediately shifted focus onto its upcoming event, TRD ’20: Online Scavenger Hunt, on the 5th of December! This event is in collaboration with the TRD OC led by SecGen and will provide our medical students with an exciting scavenger hunt from the comfort of their own home, all in aid of Puttinu Cares. After the success of this year’s first edition of an online scavenger hunt, Locked In, we look forward to see what Leisure has in store for us this time round. Applications open until the 3rd of December. This is not one to be missed! *All public health regulations were adhered to, including the use of masks, hand sanitisers, social distancing and a maximum number of persons per team capped at 5.
from our gallery
SCOPET's Staying Healthy during a Pandemic Peer Ed Session
SupCo's posters used during Social Media Campaign