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The Role of the Consultant Psychiatrist in Mental Handicap: A Personal View

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Caroline Marriott*
Affiliation:
Stradreagh Hospital, Londonderry, Northern Ireland
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Since taking the decision to pursue a career in mental handicap, I have been increasingly aware of the debate surrounding the role of the consultant psychiatrist in this field. Nowhere else in medicine does there seem to be such uncertainty about the continued need for an already established specialty. I believe that one of the major reasons for the continued difficulty in attracting trainees into mental handicap is precisely this uncertainty about its future, which is in no way ameliorated by the College's view that a full time specialist appointment in the psychiatry of mental handicap is not superior to a joint appointment either with adult or child psychiatry.1

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1986

References

1. Royal College of Psychiatrists (1983) Mental handicap services – the future. Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, 7, 131134.Google Scholar
2. House of Commons Social Services Committee (1978) Second Report - Community Care Recommendation 78.Google Scholar
3. Department of Health and Social Security (NI) (1978) Services for the Mentally Handicapped in Northern Ireland–Policy and Objectives.Google Scholar
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