What's new in the Old Age Psychiatry Faculty?

Dr Chloe Pickup (chloe.pickup@nhs.net) and Dr Helen Hopwood (helen.thomson@doctors.org.uk), ST4s in old age psychiatry at North Central and East London and Higher Trainee Representatives

We wanted to introduce ourselves as the trainee reps for the Old Age Faculty. Whilst we are nominally higher trainee reps, we are meant to represent all levels of training from medical students, foundation and core to higher trainees.

Since taking on this role in March, we have been amazed by how much the faculty has to offer and hope this post might whet people’s appetites. We hadn’t previously been aware of how much the faculty wants to engage with trainees at all levels and how much there is available for us.

Social media for the faculty

Starting with social media, the faculty has a really active Twitter page @RCPsychOldAge.

And were you aware that we also have an affiliated Facebook Old Age Psychiatry UK ?

We’d love you to join and take part!

Get involved

The faculty is always looking to improve the way trainees in old age across the country interact with the faculty. An exciting new prospect is this new trainee blog.

This will be a once monthly piece to showcase the diversity of Old Age Psychiatry, showing Old Age Psychiatrists as academics, neuroscientists, teachers, leaders, clinicians and advocates.

Email kitti.kottasz@rcpsych.ac.uk if you are interested in submitting something.

Did you know that there are currently five trainees doing national work for the faculty?

Also, a higher trainee created a leaflet for the much publicised Choose Psychiatry campaign.

This was to advertise our exciting speciality and how to get involved throughout your training.

The faculty are keen for any level of trainee to contact them if they are interested in all the opportunities of observing, attending and representing the faculty at the various meetings taking place in the College.

These are:

• the Speciality Advisory Committee
• Choose Psychiatry
• the Executive Committee and
• the Psychiatric Training Committee (PTC).

If you have an exciting innovative idea, please contact the faculty (alex.bailey@nhs.net) as they are keen for help to establish the next generation of dynamic trainees and early career leaders. They are developing small grants for three projects up to £3,000 each.

Funded projects must be in line with the faculty’s strategic aims. They encourage projects in teaching, training, service development, videos, operational work etc. rather than direct patient research.

Successful applicants will be required to present at the Faculty Annual Scientific Meeting in March and submit a detailed report. Please get in touch for more details!

Conferences

From our recent survey, we have realised not enough people are aware that as well as having our fantastic yearly faculty conference, we also have a yearly higher trainee faculty conference.

The name is a misnomer because we want any and all medics and doctors who are interested in old age psychiatry to attend, learn and have their voices heard. This year, the faculty asked for your views in a survey. We listened and as such, that is why it will now the old age faculty higher trainee conference will now be held on the Friday of the main faculty conference.

Whilst we’re on the subject of the faculty conference, we also want to publicise the number of bursaries and prizes available. These are both to attend the conference and to showcase your exciting service innovations and research. In particular, a little-known prize is the Phillip Davis prize, which is an essay of maximum 6,000 words.

If the conference is hard for you to get to, please do apply for a bursary. If you’re interested, why not attend the up-coming Faculty of Old Age Psychiatry Winter Meeting, this year on Neurology for Old Age Psychiatry?

Website

We hope you have noticed that the faculty pages of the website have recently been updated. These pages are a useful resource and highlight the many interesting and varied opportunities within our faculty at this time. We hope you have seen the excellent new videos showcasing the faculty and College in general.

We’d love to hear more old age specific stories. Why not film yourselves or an enthusiastic colleague talking about the specialty and their career or service? We would be happy to post it on the website.

We hope trainees have noticed TrOn has been updated. The faculty is also currently in the process of updating the curriculum, which you may be able to find out more about or get involved in. Please contact us if this is an area you would like to take part.

We’d like to hear from you

A suggestion we have heard from you has been for improved, faster communication and how this could be delivered. An idea was to host a nationwide WhatsApp group. We think this is a fantastic idea and are happy to proceed. If this idea appeals to you too, please email kitti.kottasz@rcpsych.ac.uk your name, mobile number, grade and where you work.

We hope this brief introduction and summary has been of use to you.

We certainly have found the faculty update to be educational as well as informative about the changes happening in psychiatry in the current climate. It has offered us an opportunity to learn about innovation and service changes throughout the country and sparked ideas for how to change services that we work in.

As your newly appointed trainee reps, we want to involve and hear our colleagues as much as possible. So please contact us with any ideas, concerns or suggestions!