A strong commitment to undergraduate teaching will improve the attractiveness of psychiatry as a career. This must include exposure of students to teachers who mentor practice patterns attuned to provincial mental health reforms, since government initiatives alone, developed to promote desired transitions in psychiatric care, will not influence training program choice.

Over the past 30 years much information has been collected on children whose parents suffer from psychiatric illness. Research has shown that many of these children are at high risk for significant psychopathology but there have been few investigations examining whether or not they are being identified and are receiving mental health care. The purpose of this pilot study was to investigate to what extent the children of psychiatrically ill adult patients are identified and referred to the mental health services. Results of structured interviews with the patients indicate that a considerable number had school-aged children and that in many instances no inquiry had been made concerning the children's psychological health. Although some of the children were reported to have received treatment, few had been referred by their parent's psychiatrists. Recommendations to improve the identification and treatment of such children are outlined in this study.

The authors suggest that a more fulsome discussion of curriculum design and content in the Canadian literature will aid in the development of emerging practice patterns in child psychiatry.

When competing for enrollment within a reduced pool of applicants, program directors need to recognize how programs are evaluated, what factors are controllable, and how best to market the individual assets of their programs.