A future pattern of psychiatric services and its educational implications: some suggestions

Psychiatry has expanded rapidly as a medical discipline in the last two decades but has not always been able to recruit sufficient young doctors of ability to its ranks. In view of recent governmental and professional reports on future medical practice we set up a study group comprising members from academic, NHS, sub-specialty, community and in-training psychiatry to examine the present tasks, attractions and constraints within a career in psychiatry and propose possible improvements for further consideration. In marrying these views to foreseeable developments we are sensitive to the requirement to take into account both the needs of the community and the job satisfaction of the future psychiatrist. To this end we indicate briefly our views concerning the attractions that a career in psychiatry currently has for the good graduate and ways in which the provision of interest and stimulation, educationally and professionally, can be increased so as to attract psychiatrists of high calibre both to general adult psychiatry and to areas of the specialist services which are at present unpopular. Finally, we propose a pattern of psychiatric services which we believe will embody both a useful and an attractive specialized job and interesting educational goal for future medical practitioners.