The general prospects for consultant posts in psychotherapy are mixed. Despite frequent recommendations, it is not an area which is generally undergoing expansion and the development of posts varies across the country.

My work has four main strands – patient care, membership of the unit management team, clinical research and the College. At different times I can, or have to, place greater or lesser emphasis on any one of these areas – the result is a job virtually devoid of routine. Let me tell you about each area. I hope by doing so you will also learn a little about what is going on in psychiatry north of the border. You will know we arrange things rather differently from the rest of the United Kingdom.

Private medical insurers and providers of health care services need to work more closely together so that patients receive the best care possible, say the Psychiatric and Substance Abuse Standing Committee of the Independent Healthcare Association. Patients need to know their entitlements to health care services under their private medical insurance policies.

The voice on the other end of the line said, “I understand you're an expert on trepanation.” I said I knew next to nothing about it. That, replied Radio Stoke, didn't matter. Could I just repeat what I had told The Guardian?

In 1860 the Illustrated London News published an engraving of a male ward in Bethlem Hospital, in which two slightly wary looking whippets or small greyhounds are wandering among the patients, while one of them keeps a watchful eye on a smug cat seated beside the chair of a chess player. At intervals along the walls are birdcages and goldfish bowls, all with their appropriate occupants. Another engraving shows a female ward, where similar cages and bowls can be seen hanging between the windows, though the free-range livestock is absent. Each room is also furnished with a huge aviary reaching from floor to ceiling.

What follows is derived mainly from the traditions of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Zen and Hinduism. Not every reader would wish me to concentrate on Eastern and for the most part ancient sources. Please note firstly however that contemporary translations and modern commentaries from the Western viewpoint are now relatively common. Secondly, I can write with more authority on the texts with which I am most familiar; and that, simply, is how things came about.

A Committee of Enquiry has been established, under the Chairmanship of National Children's Home (NCH) Chief Executive, Tom White CBE, on the issue of children and young people who abuse other children. The Committee met for the first time on 1 October 1990 and will meet over the next year on about ten occasions.