Now in its 5th year, this annual meeting will explore postgraduate subjects and common dilemmas in forensic and legal medicine.

This evening meeting will provide an insight into the various career paths that can be taken and what various careers will entail.

This event is not to be missed by any student or trainee wanting to get into forensic medicine.

Topics include:

• Develop skills and knowledge of forensic and legal medicine in areas applicable to daily practice
• Common medico-legal dilemmas, issues around death certification
• Procedures involved in the investigation of rape and sexual assault
• Direction and careers advice to those looking to extend their involvement, or get into  this area

This meeting will address aspects of self-harm and suicide that will be of interest to various forensic practitioners.

Delegates will get to explore many aspects and contexts of self-harm and suicide risk, such as in custodial settings, changes in prevalence, differences across cultures, and self-harm in particular populations: victims of sexual assaults and in students and doctors.

Hear experiences and Coroner views when faced with a cluster of suicides in a specific area, and the effects on relatives by these tragedies.

Delegates will also examine how the internet plays a role in producing contagion in populations and how this can be combated.

Although the meeting features experts in this field, it is designed to provide ample space for questions and discussion so that participants have the opportunity to tailor this to their own areas of interest.  It is held under the Chatham House Rule to promote this.

topics include:

• The Coroner’s experience in dealing with a cluster of suicides, related in time and geography
• Experiences of relatives dealing with these tragic events will be outlined.
• The evidence regarding how to assess and manage risks of suicide and self-harm in custodial settings, especially the police station.
• The effects of the internet and peer groups in clusters of self-harm and suicide, how this has changed over time, and how it might be managed.
• The issues around doctors and suicide and how this group can be best supported.
• The links between sexual violence and self-harm, and how to manage this when it arises, in acute and longer-term settings.
• Changes in the prevalence of self-harm and suicide across time and between cultures will be described and possible explanations considered. 

The conference will be a two-day event this year, on Thursday 29th and Friday 30th November 2018 at RCGP, 30 Euston Square, London.

This joint RCGP and SMMGP conference is the largest event in the UK for GPs, shared care workers, nurses and other primary care staff, specialists, commissioners and researchers interested in, and involved with the management of drug and alcohol users in primary care.

The conference will explore the roles primary care can play in drug and alcohol services, for example in the added value of being able to address coexisting health issues. With shrinking budgets, there is a greater need to meet together to share best practice, get encouragement from other areas and learn how it is still possible to provide an effective service.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Dr Prun Bijral (Medical Director, Change, Grow, Live)
• Pete Burkinshaw (Alcohol and Drug Treatment and Recovery Lead, Public Health England)
• Dr Anne Connolly (GP – Bradford)
• Phil Harris (Trainer and researcher)
• Professor Sir John Strang (Professor of Addictions, King’s College)
• Dr Owen Bowden-Jones (Consultant, Addiction Psychiatry)
• Dr Henrietta Bowden-Jones (Consultant Psychiatrist, Lead Clinician, National Problem Gambling Clinic).
• Poorna Bell (Author and Journalist)
• Thomas Jones (Senior Addictions Liaison Nurse, South London & Maudsley NHS FT)
• Dr Stephen Willott (Chair, GP – Nottingham)