Mad To Be Normal at DCA

THE director of a British film detailing the life of one of Scotland’s most controversial psychiatrists will host a screening at Dundee Contemporary Arts.

Robert Mullan is to hold a question and answer session on Monday following the first showing at 6pm of his film “Mad To Be Normal” , which features Doctor Who star David Tennant in the role of the “high priest of anti-psychiatry”, RD Laing — who set up the “medication-free” psychiatric unit Kingsley Hall and experimented with LSD as a medication.

Director Robert Mullan said: “Ronnie Laing was born in Glasgow, attended the university in the city, and always felt passionate about the country of his birth. He was an intern in a neurological unit at Killearn, near Loch Lomond, and described it as being i n one of the most beautiful parts of the world.

“Even after all of his years of travelling, his international reputation, and his final home i n Austria, he was Scottish to his core.”

Staff at the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) laboratories at the Dundee hospital showed the youngsters the process and explained the reasons behind their blood tests.

Lesley Macdonald, senior biomedical scientist, along with her colleagues at SNBTS, have partnered with charity Harvey’s Gang, to be the first laboratory in Scotland to offer the special ‘behind-the-scenes’ visits to patients in the paediatric oncology ward at Tayside Children’s Hospital.

Harvey’s Gang was named after a young Leukaemia patient from Sussex who was curious as to why he needed his blood tested so many times and where his samples went. Now several young patients have visited the haematology and blood transfusion lab at Ninewells to find out more about what the staff there do.

When the SNBTS biomedical scientists heard about the charity at a conference, Ms Macdonald got in touch with the Tayside Children’s Hospital to offer young patients the chance to join their team for a day.

Speaking about the initiative today, Ms Macdonald said: “The children we’ve had visit have asked really astute questions about things we would never have thought of.

“They have a way of going straight to the heart of things that adults perhaps wouldn’t.

“It’s an absolute pleasure to have them join us for the day.

“Being lab-based we don’t have much patient contact so having the children visit really reminds us of why we do our job and why it’s so important. It’s very humbling to have the privilege of showing them around.”

A GROUP of child patients at Ninewells Hospital had the chance to be trainee scientists for the day.