Forensic Research Psychiatry Society - Minutes of Meeting November 2004

Forensic
Psychiatry
Research
Society

MINUTES of Forensic Psychiatry Research Society
Committee Members? Meeting

held on Friday 26 November 2004 at the Royal of Psychiatrists, London
1.	The meeting was attended by 47 people.
2.	Minutes of the Meeting of 24 April - approved
3.	Action Points
4.1	All Society members have been offered the reduced subscription rate to the Journal of Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology. This will be contained in the Annual Membership mailing and the mailing to new members. Action: Mrs Sheila McLennan
4.2	Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health are offering a similar reduction. This again will be emailed to all members with the annual mailing and to all new members. Action: Mrs Sheila McLennan
4.3	Professor Conor Duggan and Dr Gill Mezey agreed to join the Committee.
4.4	Plan of Future Meetings Thursday 3 February 2004, Faculty of Forensic Psychiatry Annual Residential Meeting, Belfast. Workshop 1345 Academic Forensic Psychiatry Drs Harry Kennedy and Damien Mohan to present. Confirmed.
	Spring 2005, Edinburgh. Dr Lindsay Thomson. Confirmed.
	Autumn 2005, London. Professor Tony Maden - DSPD. Confirmed.
	Conference 2006, Gateshead. To be arranged.
	Spring 2006, Dr Adrian Grounds. To be confirmed.
	August 2006, London. To be arranged.
	An interesting point of debate has been raised by Adrian Grounds. He queried whether Society members will be happy to travel to venues other than London or the Annual Conference. Members? views on this will be sought.
5.	Society Issues
5.1	FPRS Website A proposal to develop a website was discussed. This will be accessed directly but for simplicity it will be linked to the host organisation of the current Society chair. A small amount of money, up to £100, is likely to be required for its development. This was agreed.
5.2	Membership Fees Professor Grubin has obtained Standing Order forms (Direct Debits are not possible) and these will be distributed at the Annual Conference in Belfast and subsequently by post.
5.3	FPRS Logo The revised logo was approved.
6.	Ethics Committees This is clearly a major issue in the wider academic community at the present time, for example a recent edition of the BMJ was largely devoted to this. This is an issue that will be monitored by the Society for particular difficulties with research into forensic psychiatry.
7.	Lecturers Posts Drs Gill Mezey, Rajan Darjee and Claire Chilvers have carried out a survey of lecturers posts in forensic psychiatry in the UK. There are believed to be between 5 and 6 lecturers posts in existence (Edinburgh - 1, Institute of Psychiatry - 2, Leicester - 1 or 2, St Georges - 1). There are only 3 lecturers in forensic psychiatry currently known to be in post.
	Dr Darjee has further carried out a survey of forensic psychiatry specialists registrars? views on and experiences of academic forensic psychiatry and presented the preliminary findings. These are attached.
8.	Research Assessment Exercise - Ongoing item for the agenda. Professor Taylor to raise this issue at the Professor of Psychiatry?s Club.
9.	Membership Participation All members will be informed that they are welcome to raise issues to be discussed at the Committee meetings and will be sent minutes. Action: Mrs Sheila McLennan to send along with flier for the February meeting.
10.	Call for Evidence Professor Taylor brought a paper by the Academy of Medical Sciences on the use of patient data in medical research to the Committee for information. There was a call for evidence with the deadline of 10/12/04.
11.	AOCB Dr Darjee suggested that the trainees? committee should chose a specialist registrar representative to the FPRS Committee Meeting. This was agreed.
12.	Date and Time of Next Meeting 3 February 2005, 1345-1500hours