On Saturday 17th February, Heather Mason lead a talk at the College of Medicine Annual Student conference alongside national experts in integrated health to medical school students.
Physicians, doctors and researchers all took to the stage at the event with students from medical schools. These experts explored the importance of integrated health in better health outcomes, to inspire the next generation of students to champion this cause.
Yoga for Medical Students
Students can bring this work into their future practice and come together to modify the national curriculum so that it reflects the value of mind-body health approaches and lifestyle advice.
Heather spoke to the topic: “Bring Yoga into Healthcare: Shifting the Paradigm from Medical Students to Patients”. The talk relayed her journey bringing yoga into Boston University School of Medicine, and other models of doing the same in the USA and UK.
Yoga’s inclusion in either Student Selective Components or within the curriculum helps relax students. It is widely known that medical students are extremely stressed. If this becomes a pattern, it may influence their quality of life and ability to effectively help patients.
Yoga in medical school teaching
By inculcating the clinical value of yoga and yoga therapy into medical school teaching, future doctors can learn more about the interaction of the mind body complex and develop basic skills, like breathing techniques, which can be taught to patients in short periods of time.
Heather hopes this talk will bring forward medical students around the nation who can jointly champion this effort for the betterment of themselves and patients. This model has been effective before in bringing social prescribing into medical school curriculum, and can be repeated again.
In addition to galvanizing student support Heather will also share the Yoga in Healthcare Alliance’s new Yoga4NHS programme, which via and experiential 6-week course is helping staff to understand the value of yoga and also giving them skills to share with colleagues and patients.
Yoga in HealthCare Success Story
One area that has already seen the successful collaboration between YIHA and the NHS is in social prescribing, the simple yet effective idea that people who lead active social lives, enjoy better health than those who do not.
A yoga community, with its shared vision towards health and wellbeing, naturally provides an environment where support and compassion become fundamental attributes of the community – an essential component for helping people recover from a variety of physical or mental health related issues.
Recognising the importance of social networks, the Yoga4Health program is a 10-week social prescribing yoga course commissioned by the West London Clinical Commissioning Group, and implemented by YIHA. It’s been specifically designed for patients registered at a GP in West London, and can be used to support people who need:
To lose weight
To improve their heart health
Lower their risk of Type 2 diabetes
To simply feel well, healthy and supported
Suffer from stress, anxiety or mild depression
The simple premise is that by encouraging people to practice yoga, they can not only start to address the health conditions outlined above, but they stand a much better chance of preventing them in first place.
For more information or details, contact us at The Minded Institute.
If you are a health professional looking to integrate Yoga Therapy into your patient offerings, view The Minded Institute courses for healthcare professionals.
The Minded Institute are unique in offering Yoga Therapy Diplomas to healthcare professionals. See all of the details and eligibility here to become a Yoga Therapist.
