A PACKED MEDICAL ASSOCIATION WEEK

Congratulations to MAJ President Dr Aggrey Irons for his fantastic leadership!

Under the theme "Fifty Years of Independent Medicine: Celebrating the past, planning the future", the Medical Association of Jamaica held a dynamic annual symposium last week. Public lectures on psychiatry, sickle cell disease and dermatology gave us a glimpse into important medical research. They also held a seminar on ethics and a basic orthopaedic workshop.

Professor Tom K. Jameison Craig from the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London spoke on: “Home, not hospital: neglect, support and community psychiatry”. We were proud when he remarked that he was “eternally grateful to UWI …I still know my general medicine”, as his first university equipped him well.

He shared research highlighting the significance of social intervention in the recovery of mental patients who were nurtured in a home environment. However, we got a wake-up call when Dr Geoffrey Walcott, Consulting Psychiatrist for our Kingston & St Andrew Community Mental Health Services, explained that they had tried this at Bellevue, but patients who lived in garrison communities still were ‘institutionalised’ by their harsh and regimented environment. Oh the evils of the garrison!

The MAJ honoured distinguished representatives of their profession last Saturday. We join them in congratulating: President’s Award recipient, Dr. Frank Knight; MAJ Award recipients, Professor Michael Lee, Dr. Humphrey Lyn and Dr Charles B. Hastings; and Fellow of MAJ recipients: Dr. Henry A. A. Brown and Dr Richard E. D. Thwaites.