Time for change to a developmental perspective in the education and training of psychiatrists

Abstract

The practice of psychiatry in the UK has for most of its existence been focused on the needs of adults, and it has been with this age group in mind that educational programmes and training needs have been formulated. It is not surprising, then, that the content and shape of psychiatric training programmes have followed this clinically-driven pattern. Trainees entering psychiatry begin their clinical careers working with adults or older people and are expected to obtain a grasp of the fundamental clinical tools of the trade working with these populations. Experience with younger people's mental health is explicitly excluded in the first year of training, emphasising the primacy of adulthood in the approach to learning clinical mental health skills.