Leonie is the shining light for students

A CONSULTANT from the Lothians is helping medical students in Malawi learn about mental health issues - with a little help from Hollywood stars Jack Nicholson and Russell Crowe.

Dr Leonie Boeing, consultant psychiatrist at St John's Hospital in Livingston, has set up a project to raise awareness of the topic among the next generation of Malawian doctors.

Only one psychiatrist works in the impoverished country, which has a population of around 13 million.

The initiative is designed to provide medical students with a basic understanding of mental health problems - with the ultimate aim of persuading more people to specialise in psychiatry.

To help generate interest among the trainees, Dr Boeing and project volunteers are organising weekly film nights.

There is no cinema, but a DVD player is hooked up to a projector to show films that contain mental health issues, such as the multi-Oscar-winning movies One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and A Beautiful Mind, starring Jack Nicholson, right, and Russell Crowe.

The Scotland-Malawi Mental Health Education Project was set up as a pilot around two years ago, but Scottish Government funding has now secured its future.

Dr Boeing has already visited the African nation, as have other Lothian workers, and a new team of around six volunteers will fly out early next year.

The Scottish staff - usually senior trainees - will spend five weeks in the country, lecturing at the College of Medicine in the largest city, Blantyre, and providing clinical teaching at Zomba Mental Hospital in south Malawi.

"We hope this will be a sustainable project. We are gradually raising awareness of mental health issues among undergraduates," said Dr Boeing.

"Malawi is a rural country, so if we can raise awareness among the district medical officers, then that should have a trickle-down effect through the system.

"There is a lot of stigma attached to mental health issues in the country - its society is where the UK was a few decades ago."

Currently, the only psychiatrist in Malawi - chief government psychiatrist Dr Felix Cauye - works at Zomba Medical Hospital, and does his best to look after up to 300 patients, often using drugs no longer favoured in Europe and basic methods.

Dr Boeing said as well as the stigma attached to mental health illness, volunteers also encounter major cultural differences.

"For example, if someone is hearing voices, people in Malawi may believe they have been possessed by spirits," she said.

"So we teach the basic principles, to allow the students to work out what represents illness, and what would be seen as normal behaviour."

A grant from the Humanitarian Health Fund of £5000 for this year was handed to organisers last month.

The Scottish Government's Minister for Europe and External Affairs Linda Fabiani said: "This will lead to real benefits for the people in need of healthcare in these developing countries as well as good learning opportunities for the healthcare professionals involved."