The newly-launched Yale Psychiatry Wellness Initiative aims to improve physical and mental health and foster a sense of community within the department by connecting individuals who share common interests.
More than thirty faculty, residents, and staff have volunteered to coordinate groups focused around activities including basketball, cycling, mindfulness, rock climbing, running, softball, swimming, yoga, gardening, juggling, music appreciation, parenting, photography, and a writing group. The full list of activities is available in the program's brochure.
From the program's brochure:
Our faculty, residents, and their families boast a unique array of talents and interests. We believe that these are some of our community’s richest assets. Much like our academic electives provide enrichment to our clinical endeavors, wellness electives provide enrichment to our life endeavors. This idea of ‘wellness’ may mean something different to each of us. We aim to facilitate health in our community in each of these different ways.
Although medicine is an incredibly rewarding field, taking care of patients, and the extensive time commitments that come with it, can be emotionally and physically exhausting. It can be easy to forget about wellness, let alone balance, in our own lives.
Just as we’ve taken a pledge to enter a profession in which we will care for others, so too should we take a pledge to care for ourselves.
We hope that you’ll find the time to join some of these groups and/or create something that resonates with you. By connecting with like-minded individuals in our community, you may form friendships that will enhance not only your experience at Yale, but also your daily lives.
For more information about the Yale Psychiatry Wellness Initiative, or to receive a PDF of the program brochure, please email David Ross, MD, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, at david.a.ross@yale.edu.