Extraterrestrial kidnapping is in vogue. A dozen books are available that detail accounts by alleged victims. A telephone survey of almost 6000 Americans revealed that many reported ‘abduction by an alien’. BBC's Horizon programme sent Dr Susan Blackmore, psychologist and TV-troubleshooter for the paranormal, to investigate.

The launch of the All Wales Strategy for people with learning disabilities in 1983 heralded an era of redressing the anomaly of 80% of resources being deployed in hospitals while the majority of people with learning disabilities lived at home (Welsh Office, 1983). Social services were given the lead responsibility to plan and co-ordinate services away from institutions towards community based facilities. In 1983, some 2,100 people with a learning disability were resident in hospitals and hostels; by April 1991 the number had fallen to just over 1,300. There was a concomitant development of services in the community with a rise in the number of adults living in ordinary accommodation from 170 to 1,000. The priorities for development of services in the second phase of the strategy were set out in the ‘Framework for Development’ from April 1992 (Welsh Office, 1993).

I should like to draw to the attention of psychiatric colleagues the guidelines for the use of PPG assessments. These were produced by a working group of forensic psychologists drawn from the special hospitals, NHS regional and district forensic services, the Prison Department and youth treatment centres.

The political and economic changes in Russia in the last five years have been enormous, however, Russian psychiatry remains isolated from the mainstream. This isolation started in the aftermath of allegations in the seventies about the misuse of psychiatry, and has been exacerbated by recent economic uncertainty. I was therefore interested to receive an invitation to stay with a Russian psychiatrist for a week in September 1994, to investigate the possibilities of research collaboration between the Institute of Clinical Psychiatry in Moscow and the Department of Psychiatry in Southampton.

Concern is growing over the decline of services for disturbed young people, expressed in the correspondence columns of the British Medical Journal, in professional journals (Vanstraelen & Cottrell, 1994; Saunders, 1993), and in literature from the Royal College of Psychiatrists (Pearce, 1994) among others. There has been a gradual loss of beds in adolescent psychiatric units, amounting in one survey of 60 units to nearly 20%. At least seven units have closed all their beds, and others are threatened with closure.

Unlike NHS practice, Army psychiatry is an occupational psychiatric service. This is a description of my three visits to Bosnia-Hertzegovina (BHG) as the visiting Army psychiatrist during 1993.

John Thomas Arlidge was a prominent alienist in the mid 19th century. After thirteen years involvement with asylum psychiatry in London he changed direction to become a physician in North Staffordshire, achieving fame as an expert in occupational disorders. This paper describes his contributions to the psychiatric literature and suggests that disaffection with the way psychiatry was progressing may have led to his change of career.

The Royal Hotel overlooking College Green in Bristol accommodated members attending the Spring Quarterly Meeting of the Royal Medico-Psychological Association (RMPA) in May 1957 and the Annual Conference of the Specialist Section of General Psychiatry of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in May 1994. I was privileged to be there both times.

In December 1994 Lahore was host to an international psychiatric conference with participants from various countries including Pakistan, UK, France, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, USA, Canada and Australia. The main contingent of foreign delegates of about 40 consultants was from the UK.

A one-day symposium was held at the Royal College of Psychiatrists on 4 October 1994 by the Transcultural Special Interest Group (TSIG) entitled The Practice of Psychiatry in a Multi-Cultural Context’. Speakers included Yvonne Christie of the Regional Race Programme for the NHS Mental Health Task Force, Drs Suman Fernando, Sashidharan, Ndegwa, Nasirullah, and Mahadeshwar.

The Mental Health Task Force was set up by the Secretary of State for Health under the leadership of David King to assist in the process of the closure of the large mental hospitals and to ensure adequate provision was made to replace their services. Its strategic objectives, to be accomplished by the end of 1994, were to map the replacement of the remaining large institutions by good quality services, ensuring that this happened effectively; to identify what makes a service good and find ways of ensuring that services possessed these qualities; and to develop a vision of the shape of the mental health market in years to come. To assist in this a wide support group of about 20 people was set up. This included representatives of the Department of Health, Research and Development in Psychiatry, carer organisations, users, social services, general practice, nursing and the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The authors represented the College.