About Us
MedEdMentoring is an NIMH-supported educational initiative targeted toward supporting the educational needs of mentees, mentors, and mentors-in-training. In its launch year, this initiative will focus on the field of geriatric mental health services research, but in the future it will be expanded to include mentoring in several other areas.
The content for this initiative was developed by experts and senior mentors and a nationally recognized Advisory Board.
Before we give you a guided tour of the Web site, let’s examine the rationale for this project.
According to US Census projections, the number of people 65 years of
age and older will more than double by the middle of this century, and 18%
to 28% of this population will have significant psychiatric
symptoms.
To meet the mental health needs of this rapidly growing older population,
more geriatric psychiatrists and clinicians are needed. We also need more investigators
and researchers to increase our understanding of these illnesses and to develop
effective interventions. In order to keep the pipeline flowing, we must attract
professionals to this field and develop mentees and junior investigators who
will become the next generation of mentors and independent scientists. Success
in preparing this workforce is dependent on the effectiveness of focused mentoring
activities. There are a growing number of NIMH-funded initiatives that have
been successfully working toward this direction, but the benefits that can
be derived from these programs are limited because of the limited number of
participants that they can accommodate.
This Web site is a small but significant part of a large educational initiative
that covers different media, including live events, symposia, career workshops,
print materials, CD-ROMs, and the World Wide Web. The Web site is intended
to make all of these resources available to a larger number of professionals.
In other words, it will serve as the content clearinghouse, and is an important
tool in our efforts to engage, educate, and expand the workforce in the field
of mental health and aging.
Let’s navigate the Web site for a quick overview.
First of all, please note that this innovative, credible, and content-rich repository is available for FREE. However, we do ask that you register in order to access its full range of content. The registration is simple, easy, and has many benefits.
To register, you will need to answer a few common questions, only once, on the registration page. Thereafter, each time you revisit the site, you will gain quick access to the full range of password-protected, expert-developed materials.
If you haven’t registered already, you can do so now.
The common content available to both registered and unregistered users is available from the home page.
For example, Medical Updates. This popular feature provides access to career development articles chosen by experts and published in medical journals. When you come to this page, you will find complete citations, with a summary introduction to the published paper, access to the abstract, and a hyperlink to the PubMed entry or the source for the full article.
The In the News section keeps you posted about what’s being published in the consumer press.
The Calendar of Events is constantly updated to reflect events focused on geriatric mental health services research, or general mentoring for career development in mental health. You can choose to display by year or by specialty, or 'view all.'
The Resources section is your ready-reference guide to associations, journals, books, web resources, and funding and training opportunities in the areas of geriatric mental health and mentoring.
We realize that our users are busy professionals and often do not have the time to go online in search of the most recent updates. Our monthly Mentoring eZine, a 1-page summary e-mail, will keep you up-to-date on what’s new and relevant. This important communication is FREE.
The sign-up procedure for receiving the Mentoring eZine is simple. If you have not already registered, you can do so now.
Our registered users have access to Mentoring Q&A, Panel Discussion recordings, didactic slide/lecture presentations, interactive case studies, Ask A Mentor forum, Mentoring Guidelines, Career Autobiographies, and a vast library of downloadable slides.
The Mentoring Q&A section is intended to provide answers to our users' questions through 3 different channels: First, there are Expert Discussions of various mentoring topics, such as mentor-mentee relationships or career development, offered in multimedia format. Next, a comprehensive list of mentoring-related questions and answers in text format is posted on the page. Finally, users may ask a question via this forum. The answers will be provided by senior mentors, and will be posted in this section as well as emailed to the questioner. So, start taking advantage of your Web-mentor.
The Slide Library section contains slides from educational presentations developed by leaders in the field of geriatric mental health research and mentoring. Each presentation can be viewed and/or downloaded in its entirety, or the slide library can be searched to create custom presentations. To better understand how you can Search, Add, and Download slides, take a few minutes to go through the Slide Library Tutorial offered in that section.
We hope that you, whether you are a mentee, mentor, or a mentor-in-training, will find this resource useful. Please visit us often and also help spread the word about the availability of this NIMH-supported resource. Tell a colleague about it. And, if you have any questions or comments, please contact us. Thank you for visiting MedEdMentoring.org.
