Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Improved Attitudes to Psychiatry: A Global Mental Health Peer-to-Peer E-Learning Partnership

  • Empirical Report
  • Published:
Academic Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

Health links aim to strengthen healthcare systems in low and middle-income countries through mutual exchange of skills, knowledge, and experience. However, student participation remains limited despite growing educational emphasis upon global health. Medical students continue to report negative attitudes to psychiatry in high-income countries, and in Somaliland, the lack of public sector psychiatrists limits medical students’ awareness of mental healthcare. The authors describe the design, implementation, and mixed-methods analysis of a peer-to-peer psychiatry e-learning partnership between UK and Somaliland students arising from a global mental health link between the two countries.

Methods

Medical students at King’s College London and Hargeisa and Amoud universities, Somaliland, were grouped into 24 pairs. Participants aimed to complete ten fortnightly meetings to discuss psychiatry topics via the website MedicineAfrica. Students completed initial and final evaluations including Attitudes toward Psychiatry (ATP-30) questions, a stigma questionnaire, and brief evaluations after each meeting.

Results

Quantitative findings demonstrated that enjoyment, interest, and academic helpfulness were rated highly by students in Somaliland and moderately by students in the UK. Somaliland students’ attitudes to psychiatry were significantly more positive post-participation, whereas UK students’ attitudes remained stable. Qualitative findings identified more gains in factual knowledge for Somaliland students, whereas UK students reported more cross-cultural learning. Reasons for non-completion and student-suggested improvements emphasized the need to ensure commitment to the program by participants.

Conclusions

This partnership encouraged students to consider global mental health outside the standard medical education environment, through an e-learning format solely utilizing existing resources. This new approach demonstrates potential benefits to students in contrasting locations of brief, focused online peer-to-peer education partnerships, expanding the scope of health links to the medical professionals of the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

References

  1. Malhi GS, Parker GB, Parker K, Carr J, Kirkby KC, Yellowlees P, et al. Attitudes toward psychiatry among students entering medical school. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2003;107:424–9.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Fazel S, Ebmeier KP. Specialty choice in UK junior doctors: is psychiatry the least popular specialty for UK and international medical graduates? BMC Med Educ. 2009;9:77.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  3. Goldacre MJ, Laxton L, Lambert TW. Medical graduates’ early career choices of specialty and their eventual specialty destinations: UK prospective cohort studies. Br Med J. 2010;341:c3199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Sculze B. Stigma and mental health professionals: a review of the evidence on an intricate relationship. Int Rev Psychiatr. 2007;19:137–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Link BG, Yang LH, Phelan JC, Collins PY. Measuring mental illness stigma. Schizophr Bull. 2004;30:511–41.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Dogra N, Edwards R, Karim K, Cavendish S. Current issues in undergraduate psychiatry education: the findings of a qualitative study. Adv Health Sci Educ. 2006;13:309–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Kuhnigk O, Strebel B, Schilauske J, Jueptner M. Attitudes of medical students towards psychiatry. Adv Health Sci Educ. 2007;12:87–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lyons Z. Attitudes of medical students toward psychiatry and psychiatry as a career: a systematic review. Acad Psychiatry. 2013;37:150–7.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Thornicroft G. Stigma and discrimination limit access to mental health care. Epidemiol Psychiatr Soc. 2008;17:14–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Jarabi BO. Review of various population estimates for Somaliland, Puntland and South-Central Somalia. Independent Consultancy Mission; 2007.

  11. Sheriff RS, Reggi M, Mohamed A, Haibe F, Whitwell S, Jenkins R. Mental health in Somalia. Int Psychiatry. 2011;8:89–91.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Sheriff RS, Leather AJM. Leadership and global health. In: Stanton E, Lemer C, Mountford J, editors. Clinical leadership: bridging the divide. London: Quay Books; 2009.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Leather AJM, Butterfield C, Peachey K, Silverman M, Sheriff RS. International Health Links movement expands in the United Kingdom. Int Health. 2010;2:165–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Leather A, Ismail EA, Ali R, Abdi YA, Abby MH, Gulaid SA, et al. Working together to rebuild healthcare in post-conflict Somaliland. Lancet. 2006;368:1119–25.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Sheriff RS, Whitwell S. An innovative approach to integrating mental health into health systems: strengthening activities in Somaliland. Interv Int J Ment Health Psychosoc Work Couns Areas Armed Conflict. 2012;10:59–65.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Sheriff RS, Bass N, Hughes P, Ade-Odunlade P, Ismail A, Whitwell S, et al. Use of interactive teaching techniques to introduce mental health training to medical schools in a resource poor setting. Afr J Psychiatry. 2013;16:256–63.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Mackinnon R, Haque A, Stark P. Peer teaching: by students for students. A student-led initiative. Clin Teach. 2009;6:245–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Evans P, Suzuki Y, Begg M, Lam W. Can medical students from two cultures learn effectively from a shared web-based learning environment? Med Educ. 2008;42:27–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Thakore H, McMahon T. Virtually there: E-learning in medical education. Clin Teach. 2006;3:225–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Kerfoot BP, Conlin PR, McMahon GT. Comparison of delivery modes for online medical education. Med Educ. 2006;40:1137–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Cook DA, Levinson AJ, Garside S. Time and learning efficiency in internet-based learning: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Adv Health Sci Educ. 2010;15:755–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Cook DA, Garside S, Levinson AJ, Dupras DM, Montori VM. What do we mean by web-based learning? A systematic review of the variability of interventions. Med Educ. 2010;44:765–74.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Hilty DM, Alverson DC, Alpert JE, Tong L, Saqduyu K, Boland RJ, et al. Virtual reality, telemedicine, web and data processing innovations in medical and psychiatric education and clinical care. Acad Psychiatry. 2006;30:528–33.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. General Medical Council. Tomorrow’s Doctors 2009. http://www.gmc-uk.org/static/documents/content/Tomorrow_s_Doctors_0414.pdf. Accessed 04 May 2014.

  25. Higher Education Funding Council for England. Recurrent grants for 2011–12, 2009. http://www.hefce.ac.uk/media/hefce1/pubs/hefce/2011/1107/11_07_572412.pdf. Accessed 04 May 2014.

  26. Cutler JL, Alspector SL, Harding KJ, Wright LL, Graham JJ. Medical students’ perceptions of psychiatry as a career choice. Acad Psychiatry. 2006;30:144–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Finlayson AET, Baraco A, Cronin N, Johnson O, Little S, Nuur A, et al. An international, case-based, distance-learning collaboration between the UK and Somaliland using a real-time clinical education website. J Telemed Telecare. 2010;16:181–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Keynejad R, Ali F, Finlayson AET, Handuleh J, Adem G, Bowen JST, et al. Telemedicine for peer-to-peer psychiatry learning between U.K. and Somaliland medical students. Acad Psychiatry. 2013;37:182–6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Schifferdecker KE, Reed VA. Using mixed methods research in medical education: basic guidelines for researchers. Med Educ. 2009;43:637–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  30. Lingard L, Albert M, Levinson W. Grounded theory, mixed methods, and action research. Br Med J. 2008;337:459–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Lind DS, Deladisma AM, Cue JI, Thomas AM, MacFadyen BV, Nesbit RR. Survey of student education in surgery. J Am Coll Surg. 2007;204:969–74.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Burra P, Kalin R, Leichner P, Waldron JJ, Handforth JR, Jarrett FJ, et al. The ATP 30—a scale for measuring medical students’ attitudes to psychiatry. Med Educ. 1982;16:31–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Ndetei DM, Khasakhala L, Ongecha-Owuor F, Kuria M, Mutiso V, Syanda J, et al. Attitudes toward psychiatry: a survey of medical students at the university of Nairobi, Kenya. Acad Psychiatry. 2008;32:154–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. StataCorp. Stata Statistical Software: release 12. College Station: StataCorp LP; 2011.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Pope C, Ziebland S, Mays N. Qualitative research in healthcare: analysing qualitative data. Br Med J. 2000;320:114–6.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  36. Smith PB. Acquiescent response bias as an aspect of cultural communication style. J Cross-Cult Psychol. 2004;35:50–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Eaton J, McCay L, Semrau M, Chatterjee S, Baingana F, Araya R, et al. Scale up of services for mental health in low-income and middle-income countries. Lancet. 2011;378:1592–603.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Iheanacho T, Marienfeld C, Stefanovics E, Rosenheck RA. Attitudes toward mental illness and changes associated with a brief educational intervention for medical and nursing students in Nigeria. Acad Psychiatry. 2014. doi:10.1007/s40596-014-0073-3.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Disclosure

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. St George’s, University of London, London, UK

    Roxanne Keynejad

  2. University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Elisabeth Garratt

  3. Hargeisa Group Hospital, Hargeisa, Somaliland

    Gudon Adem

  4. Medicine Africa, London, UK

    Alexander Finlayson

  5. King’s College London, London, UK

    Susannah Whitwell & Rebecca Syed Sheriff

  6. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Rebecca Syed Sheriff

Authors
  1. Roxanne Keynejad
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Elisabeth Garratt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Gudon Adem
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Alexander Finlayson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Susannah Whitwell
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Rebecca Syed Sheriff
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roxanne Keynejad.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Keynejad, R., Garratt, E., Adem, G. et al. Improved Attitudes to Psychiatry: A Global Mental Health Peer-to-Peer E-Learning Partnership. Acad Psychiatry 40, 659–666 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0206-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-014-0206-8

Keywords

Search

Navigation