Although the Representation of the People Act 2000 permits most psychiatric in-patients to register on the electoral register, transferred prisoners and those admitted to hospital under hospital orders remain disenfranchised by law. This article clarifies the voting rights of individuals receiving in-patient psychiatric care and contends that the selective disenfranchisement of some mentally disordered offenders is problematic, discriminatory and may breach international human rights law. There are therefore strong arguments for the UK government to address this long-standing inequality before the next general election.

Recent years have seen a substantial increase in the use of crisis resolution home treatment (CRHT) teams as an alternative to psychiatric in-patient admission. We discuss the functions of these services and their effectiveness. Our research suggests high rates of suicide in patients under CRHT. Specific strategies need to be developed to improve patient safety in this setting.

In the field of liaison psychiatry, as in all areas of healthcare, there is an essential need for well-organised and consistent collection of information on outcomes, from a range of perspectives. This special article introduces, and describes the development of, the multidimensional Framework for Routine Outcome Measurement in Liaison Psychiatry (FROM-LP). This was challenging owing to the variety of service settings and types of intervention which characterise liaison psychiatry. Similar challenges may be faced by other specialties and this, along with the direct relevance of much of the eventual content of the framework, will broaden the interest of this article.

Service development is guided by outcome measures that inform service commissioners and providers. Those in liaison psychiatry should be encouraged to develop a positive approach that integrates the collection of outcome measures into everyday clinical practice. The Framework for Routine Outcome Measurement in Liaison Psychiatry (FROM-LP) is a very useful tool to measure service quality and clinical effectiveness, using a combination of clinician-rated and patient-rated outcome measures and patient-rated experience measures. However, it does not include measures of cost-effectiveness or training activities. The FROM-LP is a significant step towards developing nationally unified outcome measures.

Borderline intellectual functioning is an important and frequently unrecognised comorbid condition relevant to the diagnosis and treatment of any and all psychiatric disorders. In the DSM-IV-TR, it is defined by IQ in the 71–84 range. In DSM–5, IQ boundaries are no longer part of the classification, leaving the concept without a clear definition. This modification is one of the least highlighted changes in DSM–5. In this article we describe the history of the classification of borderline intellectual functioning. We provide information about it and on the importance of placing it in the right context and in the right place in future DSM editions and other classification systems such as the International Classification of Diseases.

This article reviews the family foster care model practised in the small Belgian town of Geel. A historical introduction is followed by a description of a family foster care project in its current form. Issues are raised as to whether the current culture of care pathways, managed care, payment by results and an emphasis on ‘cure’ are conducive to recovery as promoted by the recovery model. Finally, the lessons from Geel are summarised and it is argued that there is much that can be learned from this way of working to support the recovery movement.

Both psychologists and psychiatrists are trained to write formulations of their patients' illnesses, with some differences in how they do this. Psychologists focus on psychological understanding, while psychiatrists' formulation brings together aetiology, functioning and a management plan. Mohtashemi et al's study records how some psychiatrists understand formulation and its usefulness. Time pressure was an important barrier to making a full formulation, and some believed the medical role of the psychiatrist was a priority. The study illustrates some of the challenges facing psychiatrists working in the NHS in terms of maintaining high clinical standards and a holistic approach to patient care.

There have been significant changes to how vulnerable people are treated in the court system, including the introduction of special measures to support people both as witness and as accused. This paper summarises the use of special measures and their application to people with mental health diagnoses or cognitive impairment.

The Broadening the Foundation Programme report has led to an expansion in the number of psychiatry foundation placements. This change will have far-reaching benefits for foundation doctors doing psychiatry, no matter what their future career intentions. Doctors will develop a better understanding of mental illness, they will improve their communication skills and they will gain experience of working within multidisciplinary teams. Recruitment into psychiatry is also likely to improve. The Royal College of Psychiatrists is putting in place a number of measures to ensure that placements are of a high quality so that foundation doctors have a good experience of psychiatry.

Bespectacled Professor Ian Jones is an unpretentious, fluent and animated man with a dazzling set of credentials, including over 18500 citations of his research output.