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Background: Being authentic can improve students' well‐being and enhance the medical student–patient communication and patient safety. However, the underrepresentation of ethnically minoritised students in medical education can result in identity suppression, interfering with students' ability to succeed academically and professionally. Methods: We conducted interviews with 20 ethnically minoritised medical students, which were analysed thematically, to explore the following: What facilitates and prevents students from being their authentic self during medical school?What learning and teaching strategies can enable students to be or become their authentic self? Findings: Experiences of discrimination, microaggressions and/or racism were the main barriers to authenticity, leading to fear of being discriminated again if students expressed their true self. Lack of diversity, cultural awareness and staff representation were also fundamental barriers. Being authentic was often perceived as contradictory to being professional and a risk that could damage students' reputation. However, when students could express their true self, they felt happier, safer and developed a stronger sense of belonging. Discussion: To enhance authenticity, students need to see better staff representation, role models they can relate and aspire to, such as Black professors. Equity/Diversity/Inclusion/Belonging (EDIB) training needs to become embedded throughout the curriculum and be delivered by facilitators with lived experiences. Other strategies to promote students' authenticity included mentoring, better signposting to complaints procedure and well‐being resources and implementation of 'zero tolerance' policies. To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies on the concept of authenticity in medical education and the first study focusing on ethnically minoritised students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Depression affects 5% of adults and it is a major cause of disability worldwide. Digital psychotherapies offer an accessible solution addressing this issue. This systematic review examines a spectrum of digital psychotherapies for depression, considering both their effectiveness and user perspectives. Objective: This review focuses on identifying (1) the most common types of digital psychotherapies, (2) clients'and practitioners' perspectives on helpful and unhelpful aspects, and (3) the effectiveness of digital psychotherapies for adults with depression. Methods: A mixed methods protocol was developed using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines. The search strategy used the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Study Design (PICOS) framework covering 2010 to 2024 and 7 databases were searched. Overall, 13 authors extracted data, and all aspects of the review were checked by >1 reviewer to minimize biases. Quality appraisal was conducted for all studies. The clients' and therapists' perceptions on helpful and unhelpful factors were identified using qualitative narrative synthesis. Meta-analyses of depression outcomes were conducted using the standardized mean difference (calculated as Hedges g) of the postintervention change between digital psychotherapy and control groups. Results: Of 3303 initial records, 186 records (5.63%; 160 studies) were included in the review. Quantitative studies (131/160, 81.8%) with a randomized controlled trial design (88/160, 55%) were most common. The overall sample size included 70,720 participants (female: n=51,677, 73.07%; male: n=16,779, 23.73%). Digital interventions included "stand-alone" or non--human contact interventions (58/160, 36.2%), "human contact" interventions (11/160, 6.8%), and "blended" including stand-alone and human contact interventions (91/160, 56.8%). What clients and practitioners perceived as helpful in digital interventions included support with motivation and accessibility, explanation of task reminders, resources, and learning skills to manage symptoms. What was perceived as unhelpful included problems with usability and a lack of direction or explanation. A total of 80 studies with 16,072 participants were included in the meta-analysis, revealing a moderate to large effect in favor of digital psychotherapies for depression (Hedges g=--0.61, 95% CI --0.75 to --0.47; Z=--8.58; P<.001). Subgroup analyses of the studies with different intervention delivery formats and session frequency did not have a statistically significant effect on the results (P=.48 and P=.97, respectively). However, blended approaches revealed a large effect size (Hedges g=--0.793), while interventions involving human contact (Hedges g=--0.42) or no human contact (Hedges g=--0.40) had slightly smaller effect sizes. Conclusions: Digital interventions for depression were found to be effective regardless of format and frequency. Blended interventions have larger effect size than those involving human contact or no human contact. Digital interventions were helpful especially for diverse ethnic groups and young women. Future research should focus on understanding the sources of heterogeneity based on intervention and population characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Arts therapies are increasingly being adopted within schools to alleviate and prevent a wide range of children's difficulties. Such therapies help to facilitate personal change and growth through arts media; visual arts, music, drama, dance and movement. Methods: This study aims to investigate the child-focused process and outcomes of an arts therapies intervention through child-reported questionnaires, interviews, participant observations, arts-work and biomarkers. The participants are 64 primary school children with mild emotional and behavioural difficulties. Expected results: To explore a) whether all components of the study (i.e. recruitment, randomisation, follow-up) can work together in a larger trial; b) the children's evaluations of arts therapies;c) the impact on children's wellbeing, quality of life and sleep; d) the sample size calculations and cost evaluations for future research. This is the first study to embrace all arts therapies as one research domain with a clear focus on children's verbal, non-verbal and physical responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]