bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Research Committee: A Course on Research Methodology and Statistics
Authors: Brockington I. F.
Published: January 2018

A course on Research Methodology and Statistics sponsored jointly by the Research Committee and the Department of Postgraduate Studies, Manchester University, was held in the Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of South Manchester on 5/6 and 26/27 November 1977.
Psychiatry in the 1870s
Authors: Blandford G. Fielding
Published: January 2018

Doubtless, you have all heard of the moral treatment of insanity. But shutting a man up in an asylum can hardly be called moral treatment. It is simply restraint, which may be highly beneficial, and even remedial, as it is a means whereby the patient obtains rest and seclusion from all that is harassing and vexing, but it is not what I understand by moral treatment. For in old days men were placed in asylums, and then and there confined in a restraint-chair or strait-waistcoat, by leg-locks and hand-cuffs, and fed, washed, and dressed; and this together with some purging and blistering, constituted the treatment. By the latter, I mean that personal contact and influence of man over man, which the sane can exercise over the insane, and which we see so largely and beneficially exercised by those having the gift, whether superintendents, matrons, or attendants. There can be no proper treatment of an insane person without it, and, beyond all question, the recovery of many has been delayed or prevented by its absence. There are patients, however, who are not within its reach. A man or woman in a state of acute delirious mania is beyond moral treatment, and needs only that which is physical or medicinal. That is why it is of little importance whether we treat such in or out of an asylum, provided we can place them in a suitable apartment.
The Effect of College Policy on Individual Psychotherapy Supervision
Authors: Lund Charles A. , Allison Christopher J.
Published: January 2018

In 1974 those involved in the supervision of psychotherapy in Aberdeen decided to attempt to estimate the current extent of psychotherapy practice and supervision in the Area in order to make effective plans for future training. The factors influencing this decision were the requirement of the Royal College that all trainees should have supervised experience of psychotherapy (Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1971), together with an increase in requests for supervision from trainees in psychiatry and clinical psychology.
How to Stop Worrying about Multiple-Choice Questions
Authors: Simpson Michael A.
Published: January 2018

I believe it was Charles Kaleb Colton who wrote that: ‘Examinations are formidable even to the best prepared, for the greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.’ Few statements are both so true and so comforting to the examination candidate, and so usefully cautionary for the examiner.
The Wakefield Psychiatric Museum
Authors: Snaith R. P.
Published: January 2018

The museum continues to attract many visitors. Psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, prison officers, students, and researchers in many fields have visited the museum, often spending many hours examining historical records. Local schools, colleges and the Open University have also made use of the facilities available. Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have each encouraged students to visit the museum in pursuit of their specialized studies.
2. The Lyndhurst Unit at Knowle Hospital, Fareham, Hants
Authors: Faulk M.
Published: January 2018

By the 1970s three groups of psychiatric patients were receiving a particularly poor deal from the National Health Service: (a) The psychopathic patients who had never received the special facilities recommended by the DHSS; (b) A new group of patients, i.e. the difficult or dangerous psychotic patients who are now being refused admission to local hospitals, but whose behaviour is not such as to require the care of a Special Hospital; (c) The difficult or dangerous subnormal patients who could not be managed in new style or overcrowded, understaffed subnormality hospitals.
Psychiatry Observed—Personal Reflections in Retirement
Authors: Jones K. S.
Published: January 2018

Having reached the age at which the option can be exercised in my specialty, I retired, after twenty years as a whole-time consultant psychiatrist, in the summer of 1977.
Psychiatry in Sri Lanka: An Overview
Authors: Chandrasena Ranjith
Published: January 2018

Sri Lanka now has a population nearing 13.5 million, the majority of whom are Sinhalese (72 per cent). The other major ethnic groups are the Tamils (27 per cent) and the Muslims (7 per cent). The religion of most of the Sinhalese people is Buddhism and that of the Tamils is Hinduism (67 per cent and 17 per cent of the total population respectively). Christianity (8 per cent) is the religion of a minority of Sinhalese and Tamil people. Free and compulsory education has resulted in a high literacy rate (84 per cent of those below 30 years and 80 per cent of those below 60 years of age). Eighty-seven per cent of the people are classified as living in rural areas (Census of Population, 1975).
Training in Psychotherapy the Aberdeen University Diploma Course: Second Report
Authors: Haldane J. D. , Alexander D. A. , Hebditch J. G. , Walker L. G.
Published: January 2018

Our intention in this paper is to describe recent developments in the aims, content and organization of a psychotherapy course which began in 1965 (Millar et al 1968) and the factors which have influenced these developments.
Psychiatric Tutors
Authors: Bronks Ian
Published: January 2018

The organization of postgraduate training programmes in individual hospitals is the responsibility of the Psychiatric Tutors. The present arrangements have evolved from the pioneering work of the late Professor Erwin Stengel in the 1950s. From these beginnings a system has developed which now encompasses almost every psychiatric hospital and unit in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and which has indeed been adopted by other branches of medicine.
The Scottish Psychiatric Research Society
Authors: Kendell R. E.
Published: January 2018

The Society was founded at a meeting in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in December 1961. Most of the twenty-one foundation members, who came from all four Scottish university medical school centres, were young men, lecturers or senior registrars for the most part. They elected John Smythies president and Ian Oswald secretary and drew up a constitution which committed the society to meet ‘at least twice a year … in the four Scottish universities in rotation’, other centres also being asked to act as host from time to time. The primary aim of the society was ‘to promote and encourage research into psychiatry and allied disciplines' and it was a multidisciplinary society from the beginning. Two of the foundation members were clinical psychologists and for some years a biochemist, Dr Todrick, was president.
The Acute Admission Ward as ‘Patient’
Authors: Rose Nick
Published: January 2018

I suspect that caring not only for patients but also for staff is the lot of most senior registrars. Patients need understanding and ‘formulating’, while staff need support and supervision. A less obvious role for the senior registrar is that of caring for the organization of which staff and patients form a part. True, this is often done by the consultant. But frequently the unique position of the senior registrar, closely in touch with the day-to-day life of the ward and yet sufficiently detached, makes him the ideal person for this role.
Report on the Conference on Tasks and Problems for Peripatetic Trainees in Psychotherapy
Authors: Sklar John
Published: January 2018

The one-day conference, organized by the Psychotherapy Advisory Sub-Committee of the Joint Committee in Higher Psychiatric Training took place on 8 October 1981 under the chairmanship of Dr H. Wolff, at the Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Letters from Psychiatrists to General Practitioners
Authors: Margo J. L.
Published: January 2018

The need for clear communication in medicine is often stressed, but of all aspects of medical communication probably the least attention is given to that between doctors themselves. The structure of the NHS and the mode of referral from general practitioners (GPs) to specialists mean that the quality of communication between GP and specialist has a strong influence on the way patients are managed and the standard of the care provided. Although it might seem preferable that contact between doctors should be on a face to face basis, this is often not possible. By far the most common mode of communication between GP and specialist is the letter.
Southern Division
Authors: O'Keeffe K. A.
Published: January 2018

This year the Southern Division held its Annual General Meeting on 17 June 1982 at Cane Hill Hospital as one of the events to mark the hospital's centenary.
The MRCPsych Examination—Professor Cawley meets the Education Committee
Authors: Berrios G. E.
Published: January 2018

The Working Party appointed to review the form, content and value of the MRCPsych examination is about to discharge its awesome brief. Professor Cawley, the Chairman, presented a preliminary report to the Education Committee on 14 September 1982. It is expected that the final Report will be submitted to the Court of Electors sometime in 1983. The recommendations will be implemented only after the current cohort of candidates has been allowed to complete their examination under the old regulations.
In-Patients Sometimes Kill Themselves
Authors: Crammer J. L.
Published: January 2018

If the Health Service were perfect there would be no suicides among hospital patients. The first aim of all doctors and nurses is to preserve life, and patients are admitted to hospital in part so that they will not harm or kill themselves. Yet every year over 100, perhaps 200 or more people in the UK, deliberately end their lives while receiving in-patient psychiatric care. The exact number is not known, partly because of the way the statistics are collected, and partly because of a pall of secrecy spread over such deaths.
An NHS Dynamic Psychotherapy Service—A Personal Vision
Authors: Whyte Chris
Published: January 2018

A consultant psychotherapist's main concern should be the development and organization of a specialized psychotherapy service. Other functions such as teaching, supervising, consultative and administrative work are derived from and subordinate to this task.
It may be ‘Community’ but is it Comprehensive: A Wrong Question?
Authors: Langley G. E.
Published: January 2018

The debate on the place of community psychiatry is conducted as if it were a matter of choosing between service in the community on one hand and hospitals on the other. When expressed as a dichotomy the question, as illustrated by Scull's Dilemma (Jones, 1982), may be unanswerable. Instead, should we not ask what range of co-ordinated services are required to provide a comprehensive service for the mentally disturbed in a geographically-defined community? The key word then becomes comprehensive with community, in the sense of extra-hospital, important but subordinate. The hospital is then seen as part of the service; it is of the community, not alien to it. Other service components need not be anti-hospital, but hospital staff will need to avoid institutionalism and live down prejudice. The debate about what we can afford, although relevant, is separate.
A Psychiatric Version of the New Aberdeen Medical Record
Authors: Rix Keith J. B. , McNally Betty , Johnson Margaret
Published: January 2018

When Wilson et al (1978) described ‘The new Aberdeen Medical Record,’ they stated: ‘The bulk and disarray of many hospital medical records make it impossible to review and retrieve information easily, hamper the proper care of patients and cause much time to be wasted … when papers accumulate chaotically in the folders much time is wasted in clumsy attempts to retrieve information; important facts about patients and their problems and drug treatment are obscured.’ The same problems apply to the records of psychiatric patients, and this paper describes the adaptation of the Aberdeen Medical Record for use in psychiatric units and hospitals.
Study Tour to Denmark, 1983
Authors: Smith Andrew C.
Published: January 2018

In the autumn of 1981 the College meeting was held jointly with the Danish Psychiatric Association, many of whose members came to London for a few days. Planning for the recent study tour by College members to Denmark started soon afterwards. By fortunate timing, Dr Tove Aarkrog's article on psychiatry in Denmark was published in the Bulletin (May 1983, 7, 90–91) on the eve of the group's departure.
On Finding a Place in the Sun
Authors: Parker Gordon
Published: January 2018

Issues of identity and contemplation of the future have been preoccupations of Australian psychiatry recently and will be identified and contemplated in this report. While aware that to direct attention to such issues is ipso facto evidence of insecurity about identity, and is certain to be a relatively unsubtle exercise in convoluted nationalism, your reporter suggests that jingoism, if properly defined as ‘love of Australia’, is an adequate defence.
Training and Examinations for the Practice of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Authors: Best Michael H.
Published: January 2018

The practice of child psychiatry depends upon clinical skills; the first requirement, then, of a training programme is that at the end of a given period the trainee should be really expert and rightly confident in his practical skills as a diagnostician and therapist. A total of four years, combining registrar and senior registrar experience, might be an appropriate period and would allow a full training, whereas at present some new consultants have spent only two and a half years in the specialty as senior registrars.
Consent to Treatment: Legal and Ethical Aspects
Authors: Bowden Paul
Published: January 2018

In anticipating the consultative paper A Review of the Mental Health Act, 1959 the College's Public Policy Committee prepared a report in 1974 (News and Notes, October, November 1974). The second of six points covered in the report related to compulsory detention and treatment. It reads:

The Working Party are firmly of the view that compulsory powers should include the power to treat patients compulsorily for any form of mental disorder, but has doubts as to how far certain types of treatment should be applied on the sole authority of the Responsible Medical Officer against the patient's will or when he is incapable of giving consent.
Psychiatry in the Golden State
Authors: Kolman Patricia B. R.
Published: January 2018

The issue of patients' rights, particularly with regard to psychiatric treatment, continues to be a major concern in California. There have been at least two recent pieces of legislation that restrict psychiatrists' clinical freedom in managing their patients.
Training Needs in Psychotherapy
Authors: Burrell Malcolm
Published: January 2018

This paper offers some personal experiences and views of the training needs of specialist psychotherapy posts within the National Health Service, with some consideration of the needs of non-specialist trainees hoping to learn psychotherapy skills. There are many levels on which one can consider psychotherapy training needs, a most important one being to identify what techniques should be learned, in what depth, and over what period of time.
Attitudes of Staff and Patients to Psychiatric Admission Wards
Authors:   A Consultant Psychiatrist
Published: January 2018

The past 20 years have seen a movement of psychiatric care away from large, isolated institutions and into community orientated services. This change has been facilitated by modern therapeutics; and also by new attitudes to care and rehabilitation of patients, which to operate optimally require contributions to case management by members of a multidisciplinary team.
Doctors and Counsellors: Collaboration or Conflict?
Authors: Newsome Audrey
Published: January 2018

The practice of Counselling is a social movement which has developed in momentum and strength in the 1970s. Like other movements, it is observed by many and understood by few. It is acclaimed by those who see in it the possibility of at least alleviating human problems, at best as an aid to enable individuals to make the most of their potential in a highly complex world which at one and the same time is full of choice and opportunity and of confusion, frustration and insecurity.
Trends in Length of Stay at Broadmoor
Authors: Tidmarsh David
Published: January 2018

Little information is available about how long patients stay in the Special Hospitals. This paper describes what is believed to be the first systematic study of this topic.
Psychiatry and the Medical Research Council
Authors: Levy Katherine
Published: January 2018

The Medical Research Council's formal responsibility for research in psychiatry dates from 1921 when it took over from the Boards of Control. To meet this additional responsibility its budget was increased by £5,000 to a total of £130,000 per annum.
Stimulating Research
Authors: Shaw David , Jones Gareth
Published: January 2018

At the Quarterly Meeting of the College in November 1980, a session was devoted to the subject of research in psychiatry and its inadequacies. The papers are published in full on pages 38 to 50; the following is a summary of the sessions, with some personal comments.
Occupational Agoraphobia
Authors: Hardwick Peter J.
Published: January 2018

Chance meetings in public between psychiatrists and their clients are not usually relished by either. At its least embarrassing, the encounter can pose to both parties the dilemma: Should we greet each other and risk revealing to the public our special, but stigmatised, relationship? Or, should we ignore one another and risk one (or both) of us feeling rejected? The more embarrassing encounters are well known in psychiatric covens and sometimes even revealed to outsiders in the course of ethanolic abreaction at intimate dinner parties. However, hitherto they have not found a place in conventional psychiatric literature, with its scientific emphasis and basic assumptions in the journals of smoothly flowing professionalism and the normality of the psychiatrist.
Staff Protection Against Civil and Criminal Action Under the Mental Health Act 1983
Authors: Dimond Bridgit
Published: January 2018

In the 19th century doctors threatened to go on certification strike unless they were given a measure of legal immunity. Provision was accordingly made in the Lunacy Act 1890 and that provision was the ancestor of S. 139 of the Mental Health Act 1983.
A Tribute to Sir Martin Roth
Authors: Davison Kenneth
Published: January 2018

On 19 June, 1987 the North-East Division of the College combined with the Newcastle University Department of Psychiatry to pay a conference tribute to Professor Sir Martin Roth as he approaches his 70th birthday. The Teaching Centre of the Freeman Hospital, Newcastle was an appropriate setting for such an event for Sir Martin spent 21 years as Professor of Psychiatry in Newcastle and the large attendance indicated the affection he still evokes there 10 years after his departure to Cambridge. Several generations of former colleagues spanning the past 30 years were present and the eminent positions they had reached in psychiatry, both at home and overseas, demonstrated what an intellectual power-house this small provincial department became under Sir Martin's direction.
Trainees' Forum: Psychiatrists' Views on their Preregistration Year
Authors: Goodman Robert
Published: January 2018

Since its introduction in 1953, the preregistration year has been divided equally between medicine and surgery. The General Medical Council has recently shown renewed interest in possible modifications to this time honoured scheme. One pilot scheme at St Mary's Hospital in London has successfully incorporated a four month period of general practice in the preregistration year, reducing the preregistration medical and surgical jobs to four months each. Another pilot scheme in Sheffield involves four months of psychiatry, four months of general medicine, and four months of general surgery. A psychiatric perspective on possible changes in the preregistration year is included in a report that derives from a conference held by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Association of University Teachers of Psychiatry, and the Association of Psychiatrists in Training.
Psychiatrists and General Practitioners the Working Relationship
Authors: Mitchell Ross
Published: January 2018

The Annual General Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Section for Social and Community Psychiatry was held on 20 February 1987 at the Royal College of Physicians. The associated Scientific Meeting was organised jointly by the College and the Royal College of General Practitioners; its focus was the working relationship between psychiatrists and GPs.
Businessmen and Mental Illness: The foundation of a new charity
Authors: Clark Ian
Published: January 2018

The popular perception of the business world is that dog eats dog, with the executive expecting material rewards to compensate for high levels of stress and risk taking. If you fail—too bad—you had it good for a while. A caricature of course, but like most caricatures it contains a kernel of truth. Sympathy for business colleagues who do fail is not a facility prized by competitively striving senior managers, viz Robert Maxwell's statements on the launch of the second London newspaper, “It's the law of the jungle—the survival of the fittest”.
Psychotherapy Training for General Psychiatrists in the Periphery of a Region
Authors: Whewell Peter
Published: January 2018

The recent substantive report Guidelines for the Training of General Psychiatrists in Psychotherapy makes explicit the expectations of the College in regard to psychotherapy training for trainees in general psychiatry. The report points out the particular difficulties in providing such psychotherapy training outside the teaching centres. This paper is a description of the organisation of psychotherapy training in the periphery of the Northern Region and of what may be achieved with limited resource.
A Guide to Psychiatric Textbooks for Medical Students
Authors: Dunn John
Published: January 2018

At an important interview, a candidate was asked about his experience in teaching medical students. He replied with an enthusiastic and detailed account of his seemingly extensive experience in this field. However, when asked to name one psychiatric textbook suitable for medical students there followed a fumbling and paradoxical silence. When asked the same question, although able to name a small number of such books, embarrassingly I had to admit that as a student I had never possessed any one of them. I subsequently put the question to some of my colleagues and was reassured to find that my own omission was commonly shared.
A Personal View: Psychiatrists—An Endangered Species?
Authors: Harrington John
Published: January 2018

The Darwinian model is employed to study the phylogeny and taxonomy of psychiatrists in the UK. External hazards which could threaten psychiatric practice are examined and the part that psychiatrists themselves play in bringing about-their difficulties are emphasised. Ways of ensuring a more satisfactory and secure future for psychiatrists are explored.
How to run the MRCPsych Part II Examination: Organising the clinical examination without affecting your mental health
Authors: Armstrong David , Loosmore Simon
Published: January 2018

The clinical examination is an artificial but unbettered assessment of the candidate's ability to assess a patient humanely, produce a formulation and treatment plan and speak knowledgeably on random aspects of psychiatry. It is the most important single part of the Part II examination and it must be passed. The emphasis is on general psychiatry. The new MRCPsych Part I also has a clinical component and the same administrative principles apply.
Attitudes of general psychiatrists to child sexual abuse
Authors: Haeger Bisa , Dalton Joy
Published: January 2018

The incidence of child sexual abuse varies according to definitions and methods used. The MORI Poll 1984 found it to be 12% for girls and 8% for boys and to occur across all the social classes using this definition: “A child (anyone under 16 years) is sexually abused when another person, who is sexually mature, involves the child in any activity which the other person expects to lead to their own sexual arousal. This might involve intercourse, touching, exposure of the sexual organs, showing pornographic material or talking about sexual things in an erotic way”. The majority of studies have shown that these experiences can have adverse psychological effects, but the effect on the clinical practice of general psychiatrists seems to be too small if one considers the estimated 4.5 million adults in Great Britain who have been sexually abused as children. We thought that this could be related to attitudes rather than knowledge of the subject.
Sentence deferred – a useful psychiatric recommendation?
Authors: Grant William
Published: January 2018

Although the power to defer sentence has been available to the criminal courts in England and Wales since 1973 there has been little discussion of the psychiatric aspects of this disposal. This article considers the legal development of deferment of sentence, the guidelines that have been recommended for its use and the sort of situations in which a deferred sentence might appropriately be considered by psychiatrists preparing a court report.
Intensive psychotherapy with in-patients at Chestnut Lodge Hospital
Authors: Chiesa Marco C.
Published: January 2018

Last summer I spent two weeks as visiting psychiatrist at Chestnut Lodge Hospital, one of the pioneering institutions in the psychoanalytically oriented treatment of psychotic disorders. This approach has been modified over the years until the present time having been complemented by new developments in the social, psychological and biological fields of psychiatry.
A casualty psychiatric clinic at the Royal Liverpool Hospital
Authors: Ball Hadrian N. , Levi Michael I.
Published: January 2018

Clinical experience suggests that accident and emergency departments are increasingly adopting the role of primary health care providers, particularly those departments situated within the inner cities. Previous studies have shown that there is a high rate of psychiatric morbidity contained within the group of patients attending accident and emergency departments. The question arises as to how adequate provision for serving such patients can be made. Traditionally these patients have been referred to a duty psychiatrist for assessment or have been discharged from the department without a specialist psychiatric opinion having been sought. This approach has its drawbacks as an inappropriate emergency referral creates unnecessary work for an already busy duty psychiatrist. On the other hand no referral at all may result in serious psychiatric disorder remaining undetected and untreated with possible tragic consequences.
The Effects on the Organisation of Hospital Visiting Teams: A Critique
Authors: Nitsun M.
Published: January 2018

Hospital visiting teams, review bodies, and inquiries have become a fact of life in psychiatric settings in the Health Service. In the last 20 years or so there has been an intensification of efforts aimed at examining and evaluating psychiatric services. There can be no doubt that the purpose of the visits—to monitor and improve standards of care and to facilitate changes in service delivery—is a worthy and important one. Clearly, too, a great deal of expertise and energy goes into the visits. Descriptions of the range of visits and the arrangements involved, as reflected in the HAS Annual Report (1985–1986), are impressive.
How Many Beds? A survey of needs for treatment and care in an in-patient unit
Authors: Holloway Frank , Davies Gaius , Silverman Marisa , Wainwright Tony
Published: January 2018

Over the past 20 years the Department of Psychological Medicine at King's College Hospital has gradually taken responsibility for the provision of psychiatric services to the East Lambeth sector of the Camberwell Health District. A small District General Hospital (DGH) in-patient unit was opened in 1972, and since then it has been the aim of the Department to provide a comprehensive locally based psychiatric service. Slow progress has been made compared with the developments that have taken place in the South Southwark sector of the District, which have been fostered by the Maudsley Hospital. With the impending closure of Cane Hill Hospital, on which the District has historically relied, the object of a completely local service is rapidly becoming a reality. Releasing the resources hitherto tied to the large institution presents an unparallelled opportunity for change.
The South Camden Schizophrenia Survey: An experience of community-based research
Authors: Pantelis Chris , Taylor Jason , Campbell Patrick
Published: January 2018

The South Camden Schizophrenia Survey was started in 1985 with Regional Funding through the Locally Organised Research Scheme. Its overall aim is to explore the disabilities and needs of those individuals recognised by the services within an inner-city area as suffering from schizophrenia. The survey has also been the first step towards setting up a computerised case monitoring system, named ‘Safety Net’, which is being developed as a means of keeping track of the needs and progress of these vulnerable individuals. This enterprise will develop a community-wide perspective directed at targetting the deployment of services to those most in need. This article gives a preliminary account of the progress so far and highlights our experience of carrying out research within the community.
The Scottish Psychiatric Rehabilitation Interest Group (SPRIG): A practical solution
Authors: Hudson Wanda
Published: January 2018

The need for such a group as SPRIG was mentioned, although not by name, by Dingwall in his article on psychiatric rehabilitation. SPRIG became operational in 1986 with its inaugural, bi-annual meeting held at Dykebarr Hospital, and consists of personnel working within rehabilitation multidisciplinary teams. Membership is corporate or individual and there are now ten hospitals nationally who have felt sufficiently committed to rehabilitation to invest £50 in acquiring corporate membership.
Deinstitutionalization in the USA
Authors: Fagin Leonard
Published: January 2018

The task of summarizing the experience of public mental hospitals in the USA is perhaps impossible and unrewarding as far as UK-based psychiatry is concerned. The complex governmental and insurance intrastructure, the heterogeneity of approaches and the disappointing rhetorical stance one observes in learned journals make it difficult to translate American practice to our own. This task is even more difficult when one only has written communications to fall back on, and readers will have to take this into account in this brief article.
Closure of Large Mental Hospitals—Practicable or Desirable?
Authors: Furlong Rosalind C. S.
Published: January 2018

The move towards community care essentially aims at the provision of a comprehensive psychiatric service in each District with facilities for the chronically disabled based outside the hospital for the greater part. Parallel with this move runs the aim to close all large mental hospitals. The present debate centres around the extent to which we can move towards a system of comprehensive District psychiatric services alone at this stage in time and the question of whether it is desirable to abandon totally the large psychiatric hospital style of care. The brief of this paper is to summarize the reasons for concern about a wholesale move towards District-based services from the large mental hospital from the psychiatrists' view-point. Unfortunately, much of the debate is based on speculation because of the experimental nature of this move and the fact that objective research is lacking on any changes already made in this country.
Whatever Else It Is—It Still Isn't Cricket
Authors: Ezra The Scribe
Published: January 2018

Readers of these columns may recall that some years ago we scooped the psychiatric world with an exclusive article on the 1974 reorganization of the National Cricket Service and its effects on a local hospital cricket team. At that time Captains of such teams were abolished and replaced by Multidisciplinary Cricket Management Consensus decision-making processes: ongoing as I recall.
Mental Health Act 1983 (UK, 1983, 28 mins)
Authors: Macaulay Andrew
Published: January 2018

Few people will have read the Mental Health Act 1983 from cover to cover and so the makers of this programme are to be congratulated on producing a timely, well-produced visual synopsis. The programme comes with an excellent transcript and contents but, in fact, the programme stands alone and can be watched without reference to these. It is divided into four parts; firstly the philosophy and background, the civil commitals, criminal commitals, and the final part covers the Mental Health Act Commission and rights for detained patients.
Providing Gainful Employment for Emotionally Disabled Persons
Authors: Seyfried Erwin
Published: January 2018

With this contribution I would like to give a general account of new attempts in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) to provide suitable jobs for emotionally handicapped people. It concerns jobs in enterprises on the general labour market which have been especially created for the emotionally handicapped in order to make social access possible for them. Just as certain physical changes in environment, transport, building etc. allow social access to public life for the physically disabled, the above mentioned group of people need certain social places which take their special needs into account.
Secure Facilities for Mentally Impaired Patients
Authors: Isweran M. S. , Bardsley Elizabeth M.
Published: January 2018

Regional Secure Units are already in operation in many Regions in England and Wales and in others secure units are either in the planning stage or are being built. Interim units are available in most of the Regions without a permanent unit. Almost all these developments appear to favour the mentally ill, and the placement of mentally impaired patients is not receiving sufficient consideration.
Consultant based Services
Authors: Macdonald Alasdair J.
Published: January 2018

Current government policy and the need for higher standards of training are leading to reductions in registrar posts and more emphasis on ‘consultant based’ services. My first consultant post was in such a service. I hope that a description of some of the difficulties encountered will assist informed debate.
Supervision of the Community Meeting
Authors: Jaffa Tony
Published: January 2018

There had been repeated staff dissatisfaction with the community meetings. Particular concerns included staff interrupting each other; frequent changes of theme; insufficient time for adolescents to speak or answer questions before the next staff intervention; some staff, particularly the more experienced, tending to fill the time with their questions or contributions. Repeated discussion of the meetings resulted in transient improvements lasting only until the next period of competition between eager therapists, or the next assertion of ‘need to know’ by the oncoming shift.
Chinese and English Psychiatric Nurses' Attitudes on Schizophrenia
Authors: Thornicroft Graham , Trauer Tom
Published: January 2018

In parallel with more open political access for Westerners to China over the last decade, there has been a proliferation of interest in Chinese psychiatry. The pre- and post-liberation developments of the specialty have been reviewed. Further, increasingly detailed and balanced first-hand accounts by Western psychiatrists of visits to Chinese facilities have appeared.
Are Depot Clinics Out of Date?
Authors: Beveridge Allan
Published: January 2018

Depot Clinics or ‘Moderate Clinics’ tend to be similar. They are usually regarded as ‘low priority’ and often staffed by clinical assistants with only a limited training in psychiatry. Typically a large number of patients turn up each week, and there is little time for a detailed assessment of their needs. The clinic is often seen as ‘a chore’ by medical and nursing staff who may feel that the long-term care and support of patients with chronic disabling illnesses lacks excitement. One gains the impression that the patients with the less attractive personalities or those presenting repetitive management problems are more likely to be referred.
Survey of Research Activity by Trainees in the Mersey Region
Authors: Davidson I. A. , Abou-Saleh M. T.
Published: January 2018

The Royal College of Psychiatrists has always been keen to promote research by psychiatric trainees. Trainees are becoming increasingly aware of the need to produce research in order to enhance their promotion prospects and to widen their own knowledge and experience. At the University Department of Psychiatry in Liverpool we have taken an active role in its promotion within the region and in the spring of 1986 we decided to conduct a survey into research activity by psychiatric trainees in Mersey Region.
Survey of the Opinion of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists on the Viewing of Violent Videos by Children
Authors: Sims Andrew , Melville-Thomas Graham
Published: January 2018

‘Violence viewing and aggressive behaviour clearly are positively related, not just in our culture but in other western cultures as well. The weight of evidence strongly suggests that observational learning and attitude change induced by television violence are contributing to the positive relation’.
The Homicide Act: Origins, Anomalies and Proposals for Change
Authors: Cordess Christopher
Published: January 2018

The fourth Forensic Psychiatry Specialist Section Conference of the College was held at Stratford-upon-Avon on 1 and 2 February 1985. The theme was the Homicide Act and the wider context of insanity legislation in theory and in practice. Not difficult to predict that so many differing ‘expert’ opinions would be expressed—a mirror of the ‘ritual dance’ of experts in court perhaps—but not so predictable that the papers should be so clearly expressed and mostly rigorous as they were, and that some degree of consensus should emerge. I shall attempt to summarize parts of the contributions and some of the suggestions made for change.
Books for Asylum Doctors, 1885
Authors: Parry-Jones W. Ll.
Published: January 2018

Book reviews published in professional journals provide an interesting glimpse of contemporary interests, ideas and attitudes. The third number of the Journal of Mental Science (formerly Asylum Journal) included book reviews and, after appearing intermittently for a while, they became a regular feature throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. These reviews were probably the principal source of information for asylum doctors about current books in their field, although there were a small number of alternatives for the more specialist readers.
Providing Therapy for Therapists
Authors: Tillett Richard
Published: January 2018

It is widely recognised that health professionals whose work involves psychotherapy or counselling need emotional support themselves to sustain them and to avoid the emotional exhaustion known as professional burn-out. In addition most dynamic psychotherapists recognise the need for such professionals to have therapy themselves to reduce the risk of counter-transferential distortions in their work. There appears, therefore, to be a need for counsellors and therapists to engage in therapy themselves, both to achieve fitness to practise and subsequently to maintain that fitness. In both instances it seems legitimate to regard such therapy as necessary training; the need for continuing training to preserve fitness is clear in other fields such as athletics and the performing arts.
Mother and Baby Facilities in England
Authors: Shawcross Charles R. , McRae Y.
Published: January 2018

It is now common practice in many hospitals to admit psychiatrically ill mothers along with their babies. Main first admitted a mother with her child in 1948, and started to admit puerperal cases in 1955. Since those days, there has been a piecemeal development of mother and baby facilities throughout the country. Service developments have usually been the result of local interest rather than central planning and motivated by the belief that such a service adds to the quality of care. We were aware that our hospital was not offering such a service and so we decided to look at what occurred elsewhere to help in our planning. We devised a questionnaire and sent this to 42 district medical officers in England and personally visited the mother and baby units at Park Prewett and Fairmile Hospitals. We received 29 replies to our questionnaire, a 69 per cent response rate. Most of these had been completed by an involved clinician or senior nurse and several expressed a wish to be informed of the findings.
Overseas Graduates and the MRCPsych
Authors: Cawley R. H.
Published: January 2018

Between 1977 and 1984 the pass rates for the Preliminary Test for UK/Eire candidates varied between 64% and 84% whilst those for overseas candidates were in the range 23% to 42%. Corresponding figures for the Membership Examination were 61% to 70% and 25% to 43% respectively. During those years overseas candidates were in the majority, comprising 60-65% of those taking the Preliminary Test and 50-55% of those taking the Membership Examination. Over the last two years the proportions have fallen to 40-50%.
The Functions of the Collegiate Trainees' Committee
Authors: Scott Jan
Published: January 2018

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the only Royal College which allows its trainees to take an active role in decision making and determining policy. Its origins can be dated from 1973 when, after pressure by the Association of Psychiatrists in Training, a Trainees' Working Party was formed. This was a sub-committee of the Education Committee and allowed for some input by trainees on matters specifically related to training. In 1979, this working party was disbanded and replaced by the Collegiate Trainees' Committee, which is a Special Committee of Council and is directly responsible to it. Since its inception, the CTC has gradually increased its representation within the College so that it now has at least one trainee on every committee of the College except the Court of Electors. We therefore have an opportunity to comment on all issues of relevance to trainees and to psychiatry as a whole.
Working in Partnership. Lunch-time Meetings in Secondary Schools
Authors: Hayter Jennifer A.
Published: January 2018

In their major piece of research, ‘Fifteen Thousand Hours. Secondary Schools and their Effects on Children’, Rutter and his colleagues showed how, with the right ethos, secondary schools could be a powerful force, promoting good outcomes over a range of measures, including attendance, exam results, behaviour in school and delinquency outside it.
Looking Back at Psychiatry in General Practice
Authors: Watts Arthur
Published: January 2018

As students at the Durham medical school in Newcastle during the early thirties, we were taught that illness could be due to certain factors and these were listed. The malady could be caused by infection, acute or chronic, trauma, neoplasia. … there were many possibilities but at the very end was a sort of garbage bin for all the diseases which did not fit neatly into the organic syndromes; these were called hysteria or psychoneurosis. These functional cases were diagnosed in a purely negative way, by a process of exclusion. No attempt was made to explain possible reasons for these troubles and there were no suggestions as to how to treat them. We were led to believe that such people were no more than time-wasters, suffering from unworthy maladies. If neurosis in all its forms gave rise to disdain, psychosis produced overt panic, as exemplified in the following case history. A young woman of 20 was admitted to a medical ward in the late stages of pregnancy because she was suffering from severe Sydenham's chorea. She was so bad, she was constantly in danger of falling out of bed and she was quite unable to speak coherently. It must have been because of this she was deemed mad, and a respectable medical ward was certainly no place for a lunatic. Fear in both the medical and nursing staff had completely obliterated all feelings of compassion. She was certified and transferred to the asylum where she died the next day. It was well known that chorea gravis carried with it a bad prognosis and, after all, there were side wards. The poor lass should have been allowed to die in dignity in one of them.
Teaching Psychology to Trainee Psychiatrists
Authors: Hall John
Published: January 2018

Psychological knowledge is important to psychiatrists, both because of the psychological concepts central to some fields, such as normal human development, and because of the psychological procedures widely used in both the assessment and treatment of patients. Psychology is taught to trainee psychiatrists as part of their preparation for the MRCPsych examination, mainly through the teaching for the Preliminary Test of the examination which covers the ‘sciences basic to psychiatry’. In practice, the content of the test covers basic psychopathology and the neurosciences, as well as the behavioural and social sciences. While the Royal College of Psychiatrists does not itself produce a detailed syllabus for the examination, the Association of University Teachers of Psychiatry (AUTP) has prepared guidelines for students and teachers for these subjects. Since the Royal College has ‘commended’ these guidelines and published them (Bulletin, April 1982, 6, 54–56) they have a semi-official status.