As part of training for general practice, approximately 40% of junior doctors will undertake a senior house officer (SHO) post in psychiatry (Ratcliffe et al, 1999). The majority of such posts will be within general adult psychiatry. As a result of this general practitioner (GP) trainees often receive little exposure to old age psychiatry or child and adolescent psychiatry. Similarly, although trainees will inevitably gain some experience of substance misuse associated with mental illness, there is little opportunity to develop skills in addressing primary substance misuse disorders and there is a clear need to develop better skills in the recognition and management of psychiatric comorbidity (Commander et al, 1999).

The aim was to examine the impression that both general practitioners and psychiatrists have a low level of awareness and knowledge of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), have little experience in its use, and would not feel confident in giving advice on issues arising from its use by health visitors.

Charles Shaw, in a number of articles and his Hospital Handbook (Shaw, 1989, 1990) has played a key role in outlining the principles of medical audit. He arbitrarily divides the process of medical audit into four phases. The philosophical phase which seems to have been negotiated, is whether the medical profession should be involved; the organisational phase; who should lead the process, and the resources required; the practical phase, what should be audited and the methods used; and the invasive phase, how the general concepts and the details of audit are communicated through publication. He goes on to describe a variety of methods of audit including the review of adverse events and general statistics, the assessment of randomly selected records, and finally the review of a topic (which includes medical record review). Another approach in planning audit is through understanding of the organisation itself (Donabedian, 1966) and evaluating quality of care in terms of the structure of the organisation (bricks and mortar, staffing, beds, technology etc.), the process of care, and this may include length of stay, broad out-patients statistics, and perhaps more controversially, face to face contact, group interaction, home visits, day hospital attendance and so on. Finally, and most complex, is outcome.

The first meeting of the Violence Management Special Interest Group on 25 February 1992 drew a mixed group of delegates from three of the 15 Scottish Health Boards, three Regional Social Work Departments and several Education Departments, as well as the Scottish Prison Service. The majority of those who attended were actively engaged in designing training programmes for public sector staff.

Since the late 1960s the number of psychiatrists choosing to specialise in old age psychiatry has increased dramatically (Wattis, 1988) and in 1989 the Royal College of Psychiatrists recognised the specialty's status. Recent recommendations of the Royal Colleges of Physicians and Psychiatrists (Report of a Joint Working Party of the Royal Colleges, 1989) have considerable implications for the continued development of cooperation between psychogeriatricians and geriatricians and for senior registrar (SR) training in both specialties. This study attempts to describe the availability of and attitudes towards training in psychogeriatrics (PG) of geriatric SRs.

Earlier analyses (Hassall and Trethowan, 1974, 1976) have examined the pass rates in the Preliminary Test and Membership Examinations in relation to the characteristics of the candidates and after separating those sitting for the first time and those re-sitting. This paper explores the relationship between performance in the Multiple Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) and performance in the examination as a whole, though without distinguishing between candidates making first and those making later attempts.

Dementia has been recognised as a major challenge to health, social care and economies. Research by Rubinsztein and colleagues, in this issue, has compared the services provided by memory clinics with those of traditional community mental health team services. They conclude that memory clinics offer a more comprehensive and multidisciplinary service at no extra cost. Here I will question some of their findings and highlight the importance of better continuity of care between primary and secondary services.

The Chinese community in the UK has existed since the latter half of the 1800s and traditionally has been perceived as insular and self sufficient (Lynn, 1982). In the 1960s and ‘70s, there was a large influx of Chinese into the UK to work in catering businesses. Many of the children of this generation were born in this country; with this group now in their early adulthood, there is more integration into the indigenous population. However, there is still an impression that Chinese psychiatric patients are under-represented in the services, but as yet, there has been little psychiatric research carried out among the Chinese in the UK. This study examined briefly the level of contact with, and difficulties encountered in, managing Chinese patients by psychiatrists in Merseyside.

Over many years and with various pieces of new legislation there are significant gaps in doctors' knowledge about mental health law. It is time to ensure that doctors know the law and can apply it to the patients they see. Practising legally and not detaining or allowing people to leave hospital inappropriately should be a mandatory part of training for every doctor no matter what the specialty. Medical schools, deaneries, training programme directors and the General Medical Council should take up the challenge and ensure good-quality training for all doctors to ensure good-quality care in this area is given to all patients.