Reception order (RO) by a magistrate is a mode of involuntary admission provided under the Indian Mental Health Act of 1987. To the best of our knowledge there has been no evaluation of this provision in clinical practice. The present paper is a descriptive study through retrospective case-note review of patients admitted by way of RO to a tertiary care hospital in Goa. Compared with those admitted voluntarily, those admitted by RO tended to be single, middle aged (40–60 years old) and non-Goan; on average they had a significantly longer hospital stay than voluntarily admitted patients. Non-affective psychosis and substance use disorders were the more common diagnoses. While admissions by RO serve a useful role in bringing patients who are not under proper care into the mental healthcare system, they do not address the issue of aftercare.

The mental health effects of climate change are significant and highly concerning, yet little is known about the magnitude of these effects or how best to manage them. This introduction to the thematic papers in this issue explains why climate change is an increasingly important matter for all health services.

The Maltese Islands are located in the Mediterranean Sea and have a total area of 316 km2. They consist of three inhabited islands – Malta (the largest of the group), Gozo and Comino – and two uninhabited islands – Filfla and Cominotto. Malta is a democratic republic. Since its independence in 1964, Malta has played a more significant part in international relations. It became a member of the Commonwealth, the United Nations, the World Health Organization and several other organisations. In May 2004, Malta also became a member of the European Union.

Taking the Middle East as an example, we explore ways to empower service users and carers. Resources are required for the introduction of community mental health systems and the development of tailor-made psychoeducation, both of which need to be culturally and historically sensitive. A further aim should be the sustained and constructive engagement of families in caring for relatives who have a mental illness, in the community.

Development of an undergraduate psychiatric teaching programme and curriculum is a challenge in the current atmosphere of increasing knowledge and vast literature. However, the curriculum remains the cornerstone for future doctors' development and career. Doctors need to have the abilities to recognise, assess and manage common psychiatric conditions presenting at different levels of health services. This paper aims to look at the current status of psychiatric teaching and evaluate the curricula through interviews with teaching staff, to make appropriate recommendations for the future. Teaching staff and psychiatrists involved in undergraduate teaching were interviewed using a data collection format.

St Lucia is a small island in the eastern Caribbean with a population of approximately 200 000 people. Although St Lucia is formally ranked as a high middle-income country, there are pockets of deprivation and relatively low living standards. Mental health services in St Lucia have increased considerably and advanced over recent years because of a coalition between the government of the island and South East Asian partners. The National Mental Wellness Centre opened several years ago and has much improved facilities. There remains a significant shortage of community-based services, no mental health law, and a pervasive community stigma and apprehension regarding those with mental health problems.

Community-based rehabilitation is the strategy endorsed by the World Health Organization and other international bodies to promote the inclusion of people with disabilities, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In this article we trace the journey of Edawu, a mental health rehabilitation unit in a rural area of Benue State, Nigeria, from an in-patient rehabilitation unit to a community-focused service. The partnership of organisations from the UK with Edawu along the journey is also described. The authors set out learning points from the project and the principles behind sustainable overseas organisational partnerships.

In Eastern Europe, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation is supporting various post-communist states in reforming their mental health systems to ensure equal access to high-quality services in community-based settings. The approach and new care models introduced have proven successful in most of these countries, one of which is Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We are now seeing in clinical practice a generation of young women who are referred for psychiatric treatment by their parents because they are rebelling against society's cultural norms but it is often apparent that women fear their families finding out that they are seeking psychiatric help. Despite improvements in the cultural understanding of women's right to equality, there remain deeply rooted practices and cultural norms that continue to adversely affect women's mental health and well-being. Physical abuse, for instance, is rarely reported, for fear of shaming the family, or of retaliation with further abuse. Mental health services in many countries in the Middle East are undergoing reform, but little research has been done into gender differences in service delivery or needs.

On the morning of 8 October 2005, Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir were hit by an earthquake that measured 7.6 on the Richter scale. Within 5 seconds, almost all buildings in two major cities of the north were destroyed: the capital of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, and Balakot, a picturesque mountain city. This was about 9 a.m. Children were in classrooms and mothers were doing household chores. Many men were in the fields. Therefore, when houses and buildings collapsed, thousands of young children and women were killed, as a result of falling roofs and walls. All government buildings, universities and colleges were destroyed and thousands of students died. In one town there were no children left alive: a generation had been wiped out. In two schools alone people were trying to retrieve 600 bodies of young girls. The earthquake hit hardest in difficult mountainous terrain. Even under normal conditions, four-wheel-drive vehicles are required to travel in this area; after the earthquake, landslides had blocked access to large villages. Many small villages were buried.

This paper reviews the major organisational changes made to the delivery of mental healthcare in prisons in England and Wales since the turn of the century. These changes have included the introduction of ‘in-reach’ services for prisoners with serious mental illness, replicating the work of community mental health teams. In addition, healthcare budgets and commissioning responsibilities have been transferred to the National Health Service. Measures to reduce the rate of suicide in prisons are also considered.

We revisit our previous work on child abuse in Kuwait, with a focus on the sexual abuse data, and discuss the findings in the context of the local culture. In 2006, a nationwide sample of 4467 senior high-school students (mean age 16.9; 48.6% boys) at government secondary schools was studied. Over their lifetime, 8.6% had been sexually attacked, 5.9% had experienced someone threatening to have sex with them, 15.3% had experienced unwanted sexual exposure, and 17.4% had had someone touch their sexual parts (boys 21.1%, girls 14.0%; P < 0.001). Most perpetrators were members of the extended family. The way to assist ‘dysfunctional families’, where ‘family honour’ and the need for peaceful relations with neighbours have priority over the mental health of female victims, is to propagate the finding that child sexual abuse has a wide-ranging deleterious impact on psychosocial functioning.

As of 2015, with the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations has a new roadmap for development that will guide global and national agendas for the next 15 years. Mental health was explicitly included in the SDGs, for the first time being recognised as an essential component of development. This is a major achievement that has taken decades of unrelenting advocacy. Still, mental health lacks clear, measurable indicators within the SDGs, threatening its progress in the realm of global development. The task now is for the global mental health community to actively work within health systems, and with other sectors, to integrate mental health interventions and indicators into programmes aimed at other goals and targets. In this way, the direct impact of mental health on development and the impact of mental health on other development goals will be recognised and quantified.

This month's issue of BJPsych International focuses on the Middle East, with papers on psychiatric care in conflict zones, the persistence of institutionalisation in Arab countries, service delivery in Iraq, improved media attitudes towards mental illness in Qatar and integration of mental health services into primary care in that country.

An undercurrent of change is occurring in Qatar's approach towards mental healthcare. In the past 5 years, significant attention has been given to community care initiatives. There is much progress to be made, but the provision of psychiatric support outside of hospitals, the launch of several community services and the tackling of the associated social stigma represent a marked step away from the norm that has usually pervaded in the region. This article analyses these changes and identifies the challenges that remain.

Laos (officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic) is a land-locked country in South East Asia, and one of the three former French colonies of Indochina. Since 1989, when it was opened to foreigners, there has been an influx of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and tourists. From 1998 tourist numbers have increased every year, and Laos has become the ‘must see’ destination in a travel industry that craves the exotic. It has an old and rich culture with a diverse population. The climate is tropical, with a cool dry season and a hot wet season, when temperatures reach 38°C.

A tradition of Romano-Germanic or civil law defines the legal system in Finland. Laws of relevance to psychiatry are the 1990 Mental Health Act and, insofar as it pertains to forensic psychiatry, the Criminal Law (1889) and the Law on State Mental Hospitals (1987, revised 1997). These are outlined in the present paper.

On 10 January 2006, ITV2, a UK television channel, ran a 90-minute programme called Britain's Youngest Boozers. It claimed that one in three younger people are binge drinkers and that one in six is dependent on alcohol. The comments in interviews with adolescents and families were stark and worrying. Although the age parameters were not clear at the start of the programme, it focused on those aged up to 25 years and presented enormously serious concerns about the changed patterns of drinking among Britain's younger people.

The population of Taiwan is 98% Han and 2% indigenous. Taiwanese Hans are, ethnically, an immigrant Chinese population. Traditionally, indigenous families make wine and, just like tea to the Hans or coffee in Western social settings, wine is served to entertain the guests in the indigenous culture. Alcohol drinking is a way of delivering a message of their conviviality. It also has a central role in traditional harvest festivals, ancestor worship and wedding ceremonies (Historical Research Commission of Taiwan Province, 1996).