College News
1. Professor Dinesh
Bhugra awarded International Fellowship by the American Psychiatric
Association
2. The Dean,
Professor Rob Howard, celebrates his first
anniversary
3. Why not pay
your annual subscription by direct debit- and potentially save
£25?
4. Education in
Psychiatry
5. New report: Fair
Deal Year One Report – Dr Martin Deahl, Chair, Fair Deal
Steering Committee and Professor Dinesh Bhugra, President, Royal
College of Psychiatrists
6. The Political
Information Pack
7. Self-harm,
suicide and risk management: special College survey: Lord John
Alderdice, Chair and Professor Sue Bailey,
Registrar
8. New Position
statement: Mental health services and recovery
9. RCPsych Awards
2009 – Awards Ceremony
Political Updates
10. Launch of the
European Pact on Mental Health and Well-being
11. Getting ready
for European Working Time Directive?
Consultations
12. Merger of PMETB with GMC moves
closer
13. ‘Help Shape Services
for People with Personality Disorder’
In the news
14. Attitudes to
mental health problems improving in most areas: new
DH survey
15. The health
service will face most severe and sustained financial shortfall
after 2011, says report by NHS Confederation.
16. Carers Strategy
One Year On - More Help For Carers
17. NHS
ConstitutionToolkit launched
18. Preventing harm
to children from parents with mental health needs
19. MRC
and NICE to collaborate on methodology research
programme
20. First
indicators for quality improvement released by the
NHS
21. Mental Health
Media Awards 2009 are open for entries
22. You are invited
to join The Big Lunch!
1. Professor Dinesh
Bhugra awarded International Fellowship by the American Psychiatric
Association
At the Annual Meeting of the APA in San
Francisco this May, our President, Professor Bhugra was
formally inducted as an International Fellow. This is the highest
honour for an international psychiatrist and only a few receive
this honour each year.
2. The Dean, Professor Rob
Howard, celebrates his first anniversary
In my first year I have been pleasantly
surprised to learn just how much the College can influence the
training agenda. 
Below I outline some of the challenges we currently face
and how the College is meeting them.
Recruitment into Psychiatry
is at crisis point. Many of you will know that only 6% of
candidates for the MRCPsych Paper 2 last summer had gained their
primary medical qualification in the UK. The latest sitting of the
CASC examination was only a little better, with 1 in 8 of the
candidates graduates from UK medical schools. The reasons for these
low numbers are complex, but I believe the two major negative
contributors are:
- The current dismal experience of many medical
school clinical attachments.
- The poor penetration of psychiatry into the
Foundation years.
The College has launched a major initiative to
engage with medical students. This is led by the Psychiatric
Trainees’ Committee. I’ve been amazed at the progress they have
made in starting undergraduate Psychiatry Societies in medical
schools, and linking these societies into a network within
which a new College grade of Student Associate (over 800 registered
already) can communicate with like-minded students, learn about
prizes, electives and our Summer Schools, and continue to feel a
sense of belonging within psychiatry.
The Academic Faculty are working with
providers of undergraduate teaching on how best to deliver a modern
and attractive curriculum. But this issue is primarily the
responsibility of all of us who meet medical students in our work.
Please take some time to reflect on what kind of image of our
specialty you project to potential psychiatrists. Could you do more
to enthuse them?
Currently, 3% of Foundation Programme (FP)
posts are in psychiatry. We are working with the UK Foundation
Programme Office, who say that they share our vision of all FP
doctors having a four-month experience of psychiatry. We must grasp
this opportunity because we know that if doctors come to
psychiatry in the FP, a high proportion are likely to choose us for
their career.
We have led a successful round of
College National Selection to all CT1 posts in
England this year. Despite a couple of computer glitches, and the
Home Office changing the rules on the employment of non-EEA
doctors, we have achieved excellent fill rates in Deaneries and
good feedback from applicants. We are bidding to run National
Selection to training posts at all levels in 2010. Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland are welcome to join us on this.
PMETB has approved our Core
and Specialist Curriculum. From August, this will be
the document that sets out the competencies and standards that we
will train to; please look at it to update yourself. PMETB allows
us to make changes to the curriculum every year, and so we should
appreciate that this is a dynamic document that is open to
development.
As a College we also assess whether standards
are being met. The Workplace-Based Assessments
that we have developed, supported by Assessments On-Line, receive
good feedback from trainees and trainers. We need to do more to
train our trainers to give honest feedback in their assessments
which will increase the value of this process. The Education and
Training Centre run ‘Train the Trainers’ courses for educational
supervisors, and I hope that all trainers will attend one (PMETB
has recently made such training mandatory for all educational
supervisors). Our objective test that standards have been met
remains the MRCPsych examination.
Revalidation and licensing
are starting shortly. The College will be looking for volunteers to
pilot a personalised e-portfolio to guide members through the new
processes, and capture their supporting documentation in a form
that they can submit to the GMC. Linked to this is a review of the
CPD policy to make it fit for purpose.
We are also looking for volunteers – at both
consultant and senior trainee level – to work as College
Deanery Training Assessors. You may remember the role that
the College played historically in the quality assurance of
training schemes and posts though visiting; then you will
appreciate how important our expertise is in helping the Deaneries
who now have responsibility for the quality assurance of
training and need to recruit external, College-approved assessors
who can go on assessment visits.
The College has an important role in offering
expert advice to PMETB as to whether or not doctors who are
applying for specialist registration through the Article 14
route have equivalent experience and training to someone who
has undergone specialist training through our own system. If you
would be interested in helping with the work of the Equivalence
Committee, please let me know.
I’m interested to learn about the issues that
are important to members – particularly if they involve training or
recruitment into psychiatry – and I hope that you will email me.
Things are getting better for trainees. Why not get involved in
what the College is doing to take the initiative and drive positive
changes forward. Email: rhoward@rcpsych.ac.uk.
3. Why not pay your
annual subscription by direct debit- and potentially save
£25?
If you are a UK-based member, and currently do
not pay your annual subscription by direct debit, you should have
recently received a
direct debit mandate form in the post.
Please complete and post this form back to the Membership Data
Office so the College can set up the direct debit from 2010.
UK-based members who are not on a retired/trainee subscription rate
can save up to £25 on their annual subscription by using a
direct debit.
4. Education in
Psychiatry
The
Scoping Group on Education in Psychiatry
report covers:
- Curricular support including a core
curriculum, integrating psychiatry into the undergraduate
curriculum, updates on work undertaken regarding student attitudes
and the development of a student website.
- Support for clinical teachers
including the findings of a survey of clinical teachers, clinical
teaching workshop and setting standards for clinical teachers.
- Outcomes of the Scoping Group
including an outline of the dissemination meeting in November
2008.
- Recommendations for future
developments in this area.
Please contact Dr Nisha Dogra on nd13@le.ac.uk on any aspect of the
report.
5. New report: Fair Deal Year One Report
– Dr Martin Deahl, Chair, Fair Deal
Steering Committee and Professor Dinesh Bhugra, President, Royal
College of Psychiatrists
It is now a year since the launch of the College
campaign Fair Deal at the 2008 Annual Meeting in London. You can
now read about the
campaign’s progress and look at future
work. The report describes a selection of
projects from Fair Deal. These include the College’s work in
England on New Horizons and Future Visions; the Scottish Division’s
success in securing an 18 week referral to treatment target; the
Welsh Division’s contribution to reconfiguring service provision;
and Northern Ireland’s work on a single mental health and capacity
Bill. The report also details a major ‘risk to self’ working group
chaired by Lord Alderdice, and an overview of responses to 65 major
consultations. In driving forward the Fair Deal agenda in year one,
the College has liaised and worked with the government, the
voluntary sector and other agencies.
6. The Political Information
Pack
A key piece of work developed in year one of the Fair Deal
campaign has been the ‘Working with the Divisions' project. This
project aims to strengthen and extend the involvement of College
Members at a Divisional level in the campaign, by empowering the
Divisions to raise Fair Deal issues in their local area with
politicians and policy makers. At the 2009 Annual Meeting in
Liverpool, the College launched a new resource to support the
project: The Fair Deal Political Pack. This is a set of
information sheets, which can be used as practical tools for
College members, service users and carers, and anyone who might
want to raise Fair Deal priorities with Parliamentarians.
To find out more about the Working with the
Divisions project, please contact Neil Balmer, Public Affairs
Manager on nbalmer@rcpsych.ac.uk or 020
7235 2351 x149
7. Self-harm, suicide and risk management: special
College survey: Lord John Alderdice, Chair and Professor
Sue Bailey, Registrar
We would like to invite you to participate
in a special College survey.
This will inform a College review, chaired by Lord Alderdice, on
improving policy and practice on self-harm, suicide and risk
management. The survey is open until Monday 13
July 2009. It will take a few minutes to complete and is
anonymous.
8. New Position statement: Mental health services
and recovery
Mental health services must place more
emphasis on the principles of recovery and helping service users
live a life beyond illness, according to a
new position statement from the Royal College of
Psychiatrists.
The statement, launched on 3 June 2009, has
been produced by the College’s Social Inclusion Scoping Group. Dr
Jed Boardman, chair of the Group, said: “People with mental health
problems and learning disabilities are among the most marginalised
and stigmatised groups in our society. For many of them, social
exclusion is a harsh reality. “We want to see a shift in the
culture and practice of mental health and learning disability
services, so that services are more concerned with helping people
recover their lives – services should be organised to promote
and facilitate personal recovery and to foster opportunity.”
The position statement makes a series of
recommendations for changing mental health and learning disability
services, including:
- Increasing the number of
people with personal experience of mental health problems and/or
learning disabilities who are employed in mental health
services.
- Strengthening the
involvement of service users and carers in the planning of
services.
- Recognising that the
relationship between service users and mental health professionals
needs to be one of partnership.
- Building more socially
inclusive practice into medical training.
9. RCPsych Awards 2009 – Awards Ceremony:
2.15 pm on Tuesday 6 October
2009 at the Royal Society of Medicine, London
W1
Come and celebrate the best in
psychiatry and mental health services
The RCPsych Awards ceremony, to acknowledge,
reward and celebrate excellence in psychiatry and mental health
services, will take place at the Royal Society of Medicine at 2.15
pm on Tuesday 6 October 2009.
Award winners, and those highly commended,
will be announced at the ceremony and there will be an opportunity
to meet and network with colleagues before and after the event.
This is a free event, and mental health
professionals of all disciplines and grades are welcome.
There will be more details about the event on the College website
shortly, but to reserve your seats now, please email Nicola Boyce
at nboyce@rcpsych.ac.uk
stating “RCPsych Awards Ceremony” in the email subject bar.
Click here for the full
list of all those shortlisted for the RCPsych
Awards.
Political Updates
10. Launch of the European Pact on Mental Health
and Well-being
In June 2008, the European Commissioner for
Health launched the 'European Pact on Mental Health and
Well-being', an intersectoral statement on mental health action in
Europe, at the High Level Conference 'Together for Mental Health
and Well-Being'.
The
Pact focused on five thematic priority
areas:
- prevention of depression and suicide
- youth, education and mental
health
- mental health in workplace
settings;
- mental health and older
people
- combating stigma and social
exclusion
Preparations for the High Level Conference
included wrtiting four background papers ('Consensus
Papers') to cover four of the priority areas, and a
more concise 'policy brief', and a research paper on the fifth
priority area. The papers were produced through a consultation
process which aimed to include a spread of stakeholders in
each priority area.
11. Getting ready for European Working Time
Directive?
The Skills for Health - Workforce Projects
Team is leading the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) national
programme. It has demonstrated that junior doctors' working hours
can be reduced while supporting the quality of patient care,
clinical training and the work/life balance of staff.
This extensive programme of work includes
pilot programmes at the Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation
Trust, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and South Devon
Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.
The EWTD is challenging for some services, but
clinicians across the NHS have developed tried and tested
solutions. Click here
for more information about the pilot projects or the work
undertaken to date.
Consultations
12. Merger of PMETB with GMC moves closer
The process of achieving the merger of the
Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board (PMETB) with the GMC
has taken a significant step forward with the launch of a
Department of Health (England) consultation document and draft
legislation. Subject to the outcome of the consultation and
Parliamentary scrutiny, the legislation will transfer the functions
of PMETB to the GMC by April 2010.
The GMC and PMETB fully support the merger
which will mean that for the first time, there will be a single UK
body responsible for regulating all stages of medical education,
from entry to medical school until retirement from practice.
The
consultation on the Department of Health
website is open until 28 August 2009.
13. ‘Help Shape Services for People with Personality
Disorder’
The NHS is developing new services for people
with complex or severe personality disorder, and is inviting
members of the public, service users, carers and staff to help
determine what types of services are needed.
Jo Scott, Project Manager of the Tier 4
Personality Disorder Consultation encourages everyone to have their
say:
“This is a great opportunity for people to
make a real difference. So far, we have received feedback
from over 100 people and encourage more to help us know what types
of services are needed and if we’ve got the balance
right.”
The consultation
will run until 27 July 2009 across London, East of England, South
Central, and South East Coast regions.
In the news
14. Attitudes to mental health problems improving
in most areas: new DH survey
The survey
'Attitudes to Mental Illness 2009' showed that
the vast majority of the public think that people with mental
health problems deserve sympathy (86%) and that society needs to be
more tolerant towards them (85%).
There were some improvements in attitudes
on employment and integration of people with mental ill health into
the community. The survey showed:
- Almost three quarters (73%) agreed that
people with mental health problems should have the same rights to a
job as anyone else - up from 66% in 2008.
- 79% agreed that mental health services
should be provided through community-based facilities - up from 72%
in 2008.
- 79% also agreed that people with mental
illness should not be excluded from their neighbourhood - up from
74% in 2008.
Levels of fear of mental illness also
demonstrated signs of improvement:
- 61% of people agree that people with
a mental illness are far less of a danger than most people suppose
- compared to 57% in 2008.
- Only 15% of respondents feel frightened by
people with mental health problems living in residential
neighbourhoods.
Some attitudes to mental illness have
worsened, according to the survey.
- 18% of people thought that one of the main
causes of mental illness was lack of self-discipline and willpower
- up from 14% in 2008.
- 11% of people said they would not want to
live next door to someone with a mental health problem, an increase
from 8% since 1994.
- The proportion agreeing that we need to
adopt a more tolerant attitude decreased from 92% in 1994 to 85% in
2009.
- The proportion disagreeing with the
statement 'People with mental illness don't deserve our sympathy'
decreased from 92% in 1994 to 86% in 2009.
15. The health service will face most severe
and sustained financial shortfall after 2011, says report by NHS
Confederation.
A
new NHS Confederation report says the health
service in England will not survive unchanged. The report warns
that any modest cash increases could be outstripped by rising
costs within the health service. This would leave the NHS in
England facing a reduction of between £8bn and 10bn over the three
years after 2011. The cost of new treatments and the ageing
population are two of the factors causing inflation in the health
service.
The shortfall means a cut in staff numbers is
unavoidable and it may be time tp consider a cap on the
budget for new drugs.
The confederation calls for urgent action to
find innovative ways of making the service more efficient before
the financial pressure increases. Unions representing NHS staff are
warning that short-term cuts, and increased use of private
companies, is not the answer. The head of policy at the NHS
Confederation, Nigel Edwards, said: "Having had seven years of
plenty it now looks like seven years of famine from 2011 onwards.
We are really going to have to think very deeply and carefully
about everything we do and subject it to very rigorous scrutiny -
and enlist all of our doctors, our front line clinical staff in
rethinking the way we do things. This is a situation affecting
health systems all across Europe, as governments experience a
mismatch of income tax and expenditure budgets. The NHS in
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland faces the same issues this
report outlines for England, and the whole system must make sure it
is adequately prepared to keep providing a high quality of care to
patients."
The confederation warns against previous
strategies such as 'slash and burn' indiscriminate savings, letting
waiting lists grow or allowing health service pay to fall out of
line with the rest of the economy.
16. Carers Strategy One Year On - More Help For
Carers
A
one-stop information and advice service for carers who
look after ill, frail or disabled friends and relatives has been
launched by the Care Services Minister Phil Hope. The Carers
Direct hotline should make England's five million carers'
lives easier and reduce the time and stress of searching out
essential advice, including:
- Details of support available, including
assessments, benefits, direct payments, individual budgets and time
off.
- Help to maintain, leave or return to
employment.
- Help in education or training.
- Advice on how carers maintain or
improve their social and emotional well-being, and their physical
and mental health.
- Access to health and social care for the
person being cared for.
- How to access information about, and
support from, health and social care services for the person being
cared for.
17. NHS ConstitutionToolkit
launched
The NHS Constitution was launched
in January 2009, marking a milestone in the history of the
NHS. It provides clarity for staff, patients and taxpayers, about
what they can expect of the NHS, and what is expected of them in
return.
A reference group of NHS communicators has now
produced a
toolkit of resources to enable local
staff to engage with the Constitution, so that they
understand the value of it, both for themselves and for their
patients.
18. Preventing harm to children from parents with
mental health needs
In May 2009, the National Patient Safety
Agency (NPSA) issued a
Rapid Response Report (RRR) to all mental health
organisations asking them to make changes to how staff consider and
act on any risks to the children of adult service users.
Why did the NPSA do
this?
Mental health service users can be good
parents, but new research from the National Confidential Inquiry
into Suicide and Homicide (NCISH), and findings from investigations
into the deaths of children, have highlighted a rare, but important
risk to children when their parent or carer has delusional beliefs
involving the children, or has a suicide plan involving the
children. In some cases, mental health staff caring for the parent
had not recognised the risk.
Examples include: leave that was planned
without considering if the service user would have contact with
their children, decisions made by junior members of staff without
seeking advice from their seniors, and an incorrect belief that
information about risks to children could not be shared with social
services because of patient confidentiality.
What is the NPSA asking organisations
to do?
The NPSA has asked organisations, such as
mental health trusts to review local documentation, policies
and training to support staff to always consider and act on any
risks to the children of adult service users.
What can you do?
- Always ‘think children’ – consider whether
the service users you work with have contact with their own
children, or with children in their circle of family and
friends.
- If the service users you work with do have
contact with children, always work with your team and with partner
organisations to assess any risks to the children.
- Keep key local phone numbers and guidance to
hand so you know how to refer if you suspect a risk to a
child.
- Attend your local Safeguarding
training. Ask questions to ensure you know what to do if you ever
suspect a risk to a child.
19. MRC and NICE to collaborate on methodology
research programme
The Medical Research Council (MRC) has issued
a
£2 million call for proposals in methodology
research in collaboration with NICE.
The need for methodological research to
underpin decision-making by NICE was highlighted in a House of
Commons Health Select Committee Report in 2008. Since then
the MRC has been working with NICE to identify its
methodological research priorities and this call for proposals has
been developed in response to the needs identified.
Although this call has highlighted research
needs that are specific to NICE, these areas may also be relevant
to the needs of other regulatory agencies, such as the Medicines
and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. The deadline for
submissions is 22 July 2009.
20. First indicators for quality improvement released
by the NHS
A list of more than 200 indicators of high quality
care in the NHS has been released to help
clinical teams to measure the quality of care they deliver,
highlight areas for improvement and track the changes they
implement.
The release of the first Indicators for
Quality Improvement marks the start of a process that will develop
useful and meaningful indicators across all aspects of health care,
and in all care settings. The indicators span the three dimensions
of high quality care: patient safety, effectiveness of care and
patient experience.
The Indicators for Quality Improvement are
a key outcome from High Quality Care for All. Its author Lord Darzi
noted that high performing teams already measure the quality of
care they deliver and benchmark their work against their peers. His
vision is to make this possible across the whole NHS. Lord Darzi
said:
"These quality indicators have been
developed in partnership with frontline staff. This initial list is
just the start of a NHS wide resource that will challenge and
stimulate NHS staff to drive up the quality of care they deliver to
patients."
Each indicator has gone through an initial
selection process to make sure it is suitable. This process was
sponsored by five Royal Colleges, including the RCPsych, and the
British Cardiovascular Society and sought the views of
frontline staff from across the NHS.
Clinicians can use this first list to
choose indicators that are most relevant to their work. In the next
few months the data behind each indicator will be added to the
website to improve accessibility to information on the quality of
NHS services.
21. Mental Health Media Awards 2009 are open for
entries
Have you seen a television programme or caught
something on the radio that you felt could make a difference to the
perception and understanding of mental health? If so, contact
Mental Health Media; they will approach the broadcaster on
your behalf and ask them to enter this year’s Mental Health Media
Awards.
To be eligible for the 2009 Mental Health
Media Awards, the programme or article must have been transmitted
on television or radio in the UK between 7 June 2008 and 7
June 2009. The deadline for entries is 17
July 2009.
22. You are invited to join The Big
Lunch!
The Big Lunch, an
Eden Project, will involve millions of people sitting down to eat
lunch at the same time, in their street with their community on
Sunday 19th July. It's really easy to get involved.
The aim of the Big Lunch is to give
people the tools to strengthen their communities through activities
such as neighbourhood-watch; improving local amenities such as
youth centres; taking care of the elderly or disabled; making
imaginative improvements to the local environment; sharing
resources from lawnmowers to cars; and supporting local charities
both with money and volunteering time.
23. What’s new online?