TriMent Eucor: A multimodal teaching program for medical students on dealing with study-related stress and maintaining mental health in the Upper Rhine region university network

Medical students in Germany, Switzerland and France face high levels of psychological strain, with up to a quarter showing depressive symptoms. Performance pressure, lack of breaks, and insufficient support structures lead to stress, anxiety, dysfunctional coping and elevated dropout rates. Structural interventions to strengthen resilience and mental health are urgently needed.

Building on the award-winning PsyMent Freiburg program, TriMent Eucor will establish a trinational, multimodal teaching program to promote medical students’ mental health in the Upper Rhine region. Core components include needs-oriented workshops, mindfulness-based group coaching (MedON!), and psychoeducational online content, adapted to local contexts and delivered in the respective languages (German in Basel, French in Strasbourg). The project will be implemented in close cooperation between Freiburg, Basel and Strasbourg, with a structured evaluation and a train-the-trainer concept ensuring sustainability. Expected outcomes are improved stress management and self-care competencies among students, a transferable modular teaching program and the establishment of a trinational health promotion network (TriMentBoard). Beyond supporting individual students, TriMent Eucor will contribute to the long-term attractiveness and healthcare capacity of the Upper Rhine region by fostering resilient future physicians.