Abstract
This article briefly describes the experience of two final year senior registrars visiting services in other regions. The potential training benefits of such external placements for higher trainees are outlined and practical suggestions are made on how to make them more widely available.
Highlights
Many psychiatrists have only very limited ex posure to old age psychiatry during their training and it is common to find consultants in old age psychiatry with a minimum experience of three specialist placements, one at trainee level and a further two as a higher trainee
The guidelines on the requirements for approval of higher training schemes in the psychiatry of old age recommend that placements should allow involvement in: service planning; multidisciplinary assessment, treatment and support of patients in various settings utilising a range of facilities; liaison with geriatric medicine, primary care and collaboration with social service and voluntary organisations
Having survived the first two years as consultants wiser and otherwise relatively unscathed, we believe that the knowledge and experience gained from these external place ments has been invaluable in developing our own fledgling services
Summary
Many psychiatrists have only very limited ex posure to old age psychiatry during their training and it is common to find consultants in old age psychiatry with a minimum experience of three specialist placements, one at trainee level and a further two as a higher trainee. The guidelines on the requirements for approval of higher training schemes in the psychiatry of old age recommend that placements should allow involvement in: service planning; multidisciplinary assessment, treatment and support of patients in various settings utilising a range of facilities; liaison with geriatric medicine, primary care and collaboration with social service and voluntary organisations. The present training system frequently offers only a very limited opportunity to experi ence the rich diversity of excellent old age psychiatric practice available in the UK today.
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