RCPsych eNewsletter
March 2022
Welcome to our eNewsletter for members
In this issue we pay tribute to Dr Steve Pearce, launch our new resources relating to the crisis in Ukraine, and reveal the outcome of our campaign regarding the Health and Care Bill.
Updated electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) patient resource
We've updated our information for patients regarding ECT.
Other news from around the College
RCPsych Publishing updates
Read the latest RCPsych Publishing Highlights newsletter.
The Psychiatrists' Support Service (PSS) provides free, rapid, high quality peer support by telephone to psychiatrists of all grades who may be experiencing personal or work-related difficulties.
Our service is totally confidential and delivered by trained Peer Support Psychiatrists (PSPs). Our PSPs are from diverse backgrounds and have received training in many different areas, to improve their understanding and ability to support all those who call the PSS.
As a service, we are aware that the difficulties faced by doctors vary enormously. We will support you through whatever they may be, including burnout, workplace bullying and discrimination, serious incidents, as well as coping with stress and change. Our support service manager and our PSPs will talk with you in confidence, without stigma or prejudice.
The service can be contacted by phone on 020 8618 4020 or by email at pss@rcpsych.ac.uk.
The Harrington Writing Prize (Faculty of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)
The 2022 prize is now open and the title this year is: The role of social psychiatry within present-day child and adolescent mental health.
Find out more about the Harrington Writing Prize
Closing date: Midnight on 10 June 2022.
The John Hamilton Travelling Fellowship (Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry)
Applications for the Fellowship are now open for 2022.
This travelling fellowship is awarded biennially from funds bequeathed by Dr John Hamilton, past Honorary Secretary of the then Forensic Section, and College Fellow. It is intended to encourage psychiatrists working in the field of forensic psychiatry to broaden their knowledge and experience through travel to recognised forensic centres. Proposals to visit developing forensic services in order to support, advise and teach will also be considered. Visits are expected to last about two to four weeks and would normally be to centre (s) overseas.
Find out more about the John Hamilton Travelling Fellowship
Closing date: Midnight on 23 September 2022.
In line with College priorities and values, we have launched a new online training course in collaboration with our Quality Improvement Committee – The crucial role of coproduction in Quality Improvement in psychiatric services: for psychiatrists and postgraduate trainees,
taking place on Wednesday 27 April.
Practising what we preach, this workshop has been coproduced, and will be facilitated, by experienced QI practitioners with patient and carer lived experience alongside representatives from the fields of psychiatry and pharmacology. As well as presenting evidence of successful coproduction, there will be opportunities to explore and challenge existing assumptions.
Bookings are now open for this year’s Trainees' Conference: Mind The Gap; Navigating Transitions as a Psychiatric Trainee, which will be taking place from 26-27 May 2022, at the RCPsych Headquarters at 21 Prescot Street, London (COVID Permitting).
This two-day conference will explore the transitions that many of us will face throughout our time as psychiatric trainees through a series of keynote talks, workshops and panel discussions.
Giving a nod to being back together in London once more, we hope you will join us to ‘Mind The Gap’ by exploring our four themed ‘tube lines’ of transitions.
Confirmed speakers include:
- Professor Linda Gask, author, Guardian contributor and professor of psychiatry at Manchester University
- Mr Simon Flemming, orthopaedic surgeon, change-maker, Ted-Talker and anti-bullying advocate
- Professor Sir Simon Wessely, Epidemiologist and Psychiatrist and regular contributor to print media
- Dr John Russell, Associate Dean for Curricula
- Dr Ian Hall, RCPsych Chief Examiner.
More details and a full programme are to follow.
The Psychiatric Trainees’ Committee (PTC) invites submissions for poster presentations at our 2022 Trainees’ Conference:
This month we have launched bookings for the first of our new RCPsych Certificated Courses. These courses are on specific topics in psychiatry and other aspects of mental health and well-being. Each 45-hour course will be open to psychiatrists from all specialties, other doctors and a range of multi-disciplinary professionals. On successful completion of the course, candidates will be awarded the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ Certificate on the topic.
A combination of eLearning and taught learning, these courses are tailored to the needs of individual practitioners and their employing organisations within the UK and beyond. The courses are aimed at upskilling the mental health workforce and addressing some of the gaps between evidence and practice in current service provision.
In 2021 we launched our new online learning platform, the eLearning Hub. CPD Online launched first, rebranded as CPD eLearning, and Trainees Online (TrOn) will be live on the Hub from the end of March.
TrOn supports trainee psychiatrists preparing for MRCPsych paper A and is free to access for anyone registered with RCPsych as a trainee, member, affiliate, Student Associate or Foundation Doctor Associate – just log in with your College details.
Applications for Employing Bodies to employ a doctor on the Medical Training Initiative (MTI) are now open. Employing bodies can benefit from the diversity and experience of MTI doctors, along with their unique insight into patient care. Applications can be made if you have:
- Vacant psychiatry training posts which cannot be filled by UK trainees
- Converted ST posts
- Trust posts which provide sufficient educational and training content.
Interested Employing Bodies may find the following documents useful:
To apply, please complete the Employing Body Submission Form and submit this to mti@rcpsych.ac.uk.