An examination of the changes to be introduced by the Mental Health (Amendment) Act 1982 suggests that they might have a significant effect on the fate of many patients who are currently admitted on compulsory orders. There are potentialities for improvement, but for these to be fruitful a firm commitment will be required from the professionals involved to attend to these patients' needs. The tide generated by the new legislation is more likely, however, to carry the professionals away from these patients for the main thrust of the new Act is to make treatment more difficult.

[As part of the Cane Hill Hospital Centenary celebrations, the Southern Division of the College held its 1982 Annual General Meeting there last June. Dr Alexander Walk was invited to prepare a paper to mark the occasion. Readers of the Bulletin will know that Dr Walk died in July last year. Poor health had prevented him from giving his paper, though it was read at the meeting.

A recent survey of the views of clinicians at St George's Hospital on the content of the psychiatric formulation (Hollyman and Hemsi, 1983) revealed much diversity of opinion and confirmed our hypothesis that the notion is open to different interpretations. It seemed appropriate therefore to conduct a similar survey of College Examiners to discover whether there is similar variation in that group.

The Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) is a professional association, solely devoted to psychiatric and mental handicap nursing. A rapidly expanding organization, its origins are traced to the autumn of 1980. Mr Seamus Killen, RMN, SRN (Littlemore Hospital, Oxford) attempted, through the columns of the Nursing Press, to measure support for a professional organization and the concept met with tremendous interest from psychiatric nurses all over the United Kingdom.