I am in Vancouver at the Canadian Psychiatric Meeting, which is taking over two hotels…

By the time I got registered I had missed some of the first session, but did hear two talks — one on education on Mental Health and direct referral to community follow-up decreased liaison use and increased intern confidence in Ottawa, and a second on how a preclinical programme in Calgary decreases stigma and increases medical students choosing psychiatry.

I then went to a meeting designed to set up a nationwide group of tertiary psychiatrists dealing with the most seriously mentally ill. This was done years ago in Australia, NZ and the UK. It needs to be done in Canada, but they should look at what is happening elsewhere and build on that not just reinvent the wheel

After spending most of last night revising the talk, I had 15 minutes for 22 slides. With a very small audience — we started with six people in the room, of whom four were presenters.

However, that session included an analysis of community treatment orders which showed an improvement in death rate among those on orders (HR 0.6 95% CI 0.5 — 0.7). The author, Kisely, had done previous reviews which showed very little evidence for orders working.

The other two presenters talked about anxiety disorders and suicidal ideation (generalised worry and social phobia had higher associations)and Daneloo’s brief intervention being efficacious over 10 years.

I enjoyed that last session, even though the audience was small.