Note from the Editor: It is my pleasure to present the final Psych Star blog of the Psych Star Series, a collection of articles written by the 2023-2024 cohort of Psych Stars on their visions for the future of mental health research and care, each of whom chose an area in which they are especially passionate. After you read today's article, be sure to check out the previous blogs written this year by the 2023-2024 Psych Stars!
Dr Declan Hyland, Lead Clinician for the scheme, has written this final piece, discussing what sparked his passion for psychiatry, and how this led him to lead the Psych Star Scheme.
I am delighted to have been asked to contribute to Inspire the Mind. I am Dr Declan Hyland, and I am the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych’s) appointed Associate Dean for Choose Psychiatry. As part of that role, I lead on the RCPsych’s Psych Star scheme, which is now in its fifth year of existence.
My own interest in psychiatry as a career choice was sparked by my psychiatry placement at Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop, as a third-year medical student at the University of Sheffield.
I remember being on the ward speaking to a young man, probably around 18 or 19 years of age, who was telling me about his voice-hearing experiences. He was a cannabis smoker and speaking to him introduced me to the condition of “psychosis.” Psychosis is when people lose some contact with reality. This might involve seeing or hearing things that other people cannot see or hear (hallucinations) and believing things that are not actually true (delusions).
This sparked my interest in mental illness, and I quickly realised how challenging of a specialty psychiatry was to work in and fell in love with it. I did an optional clinical placement at Rampton High Secure Hospital, and my overseas elective placement at a forensic psychiatric hospital in Port Coquitlam, Vancouver. I thought I was set for a career in forensic psychiatry at that point!
Unfortunately, I was not able to do a psychiatry post in my Foundation Training (the first 2 years as a Doctor) in Liverpool, but this did not dampen my enthusiasm for psychiatry, nor my determination to apply for Core Training. Core Training is the first 3 years of psychiatry training, which you do after completing your Foundation Years. I made sure to do a taster week in Psychiatry in both my first and second year as a doctor (Foundation Year 1 and Foundation Year 2).
I was really keen to stay in the Mersey region and therefore applied for the three-year Core Training in Psychiatry scheme offered in this region. I did six-month placements in general adult inpatients, general adult community, older adult psychiatry (mixed community and inpatient), forensic psychiatry (at Ashworth High Secure Hospital), psychiatry of intellectual disability and, finally, on a Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit. I realised that general adult psychiatry was the subspecialty I enjoyed the most. That was my decision made - Higher Training in general adult psychiatry here I come!
General Adult Psychiatrists normally treat people who are ‘working age’ with a wide range of disorders, including manifestations of ‘organic’ brain disorders, psychoses, depressive illness and personality disorders.
After completing my three years of Higher Training in general adult psychiatry I knew that what I really enjoyed was working on the ward. I enjoyed the variety of patient presentations, the acuity of patients I was looking after, the satisfaction of overseeing and helping patients transition from their lowest ebb to feeling sufficiently recovered to continue their recovery in the community. I achieved that “holy grail” of the Certificate of Completion of Training in August 2016 and was appointed to my first Consultant post in August 2016.
To this day, I continue to work as a Consultant in inpatient general adult psychiatry. I have moved to a new inpatient unit on a couple of occasions over the last eight-and-half years (after spending seven years in my first Consultant post) but am still working in the same Trust I started in back in August 2016.
I have always been passionate about psychiatry as a career choice and hoping to inspire medical students to consider working in the speciality in the future. It is what drove me to seek appointment as the RCPsych’s Associate Dean for Choose Psychiatry.
The Psych Stars scheme is a scheme provided by the RCPsych that forms an integral part of its ongoing recruitment strategy. I have been involved with the scheme since its inception in 2019 - I even came up with the name for the scheme!
The scheme is a one-year scheme that aims to nurture the interest of those medical students fortunate enough to be appointed to it. Psych Stars are allocated a significant sum of money (£525 for the current cohort) to spend on psychiatry-related activities, e.g. attending conferences or courses, or purchasing textbooks, or towards a psychiatry elective. Psych Stars are also given free access to online learning resources provided for psychiatric trainees and to online psychiatric journals. But what is perhaps valued the most is the allocation of and access to a senior psychiatrist as a specific mentor who is aligned to the individual Psych Star’s areas of interest(s). The Psych Stars not only act as ambassadors for the RCPsych, but for psychiatry as a specialty.
When it started, the Psych Stars scheme comprised of 10 College Psych Stars. Within a couple of years, the Faculty of Intellectual Disability Psychiatry saw the scheme as a great initiative for getting medical students interested in their subspeciality. Within the next three years, another 11 of the other College Faculties followed suit. The current cohort of Psych Stars comprises of 10 College Psych Stars and 14 Faculty-specific Psych Stars.
The scheme offers a great opportunity to learn more about a subspecialty of psychiatry perhaps not encountered or barely experienced during one’s undergraduate psychiatry placement(s).
The Psych Stars scheme continues to grow year on year, both in terms of number and level of interest. Long may that continue!