As part of the UKPPG’s commitment to
supporting the development of pharmacists specialising in the practice of
psychiatric pharmacy, an e-mail discussion group was set up in April 2000.
Chairman Stephen Bazire was keen to get this facility going, and Graham Parton
was the man with the expertise. The group reached 100 members early in 2001,
with 250 by October 2002 and 270 in January 2003. The group is currently
generating around 100-200 messages a month.
The UKPPG group, an e-mail group that is
moderated at "yahoogroups" by Graham Parton, is a free, easy-to-use
e-mail group service. By joining this group, you'll be able to easily send
messages to fellow group members using just one e-mail address. yahoogroup also
makes it easy to store photos and files, coordinate events and more.
TO JOIN THIS GROUP, simply choose ONE of
these 2 options:
1) Send an e-mail
to UKPPG-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Please include your name and address, UKPPG membership details and any other
details.
or
2) Go to our site
at http://www.yahoogroups.com/subscribe/UKPPG
and click the "JOIN" button.
or
visit the home
page http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/UKPPG.
Your subscribe e-mail will be automatically
sent to the UKPPG Moderator (e-mail UKPPG-owner@yahoogroups.com),
who will then send a confirmation of joining. From that point, you will be able
to send messages to one e-mail address (which your confirmation e-mail will
detail), and that e-mail will be forwarded to all other members of the group.
You can receive the group messages either as single messages, or, if the list
starts to generate a lot of messages, as a single daily "digest" (ie
the whole lot in one e-mail). Thus, if you have a question, comment, query or
idea, you can ask advice or share it with colleagues rapidly, easily and
cheaply.
The usual standards of netiquette are
expected - no gratuitious abuse/flaming and snip any quoted replies to a
reasonable length please. Careful about SHOUTING also. For anyone not used to
using this sort of service, just e-mail to the address ukppg@yahoogroups.com as
you would normally and your message will be broadcast to everyone signed up. If
you hit the "reply to" button in your mailing software the message
will go to the list, so if you want to reply privately to anyone posting a
message, remember to change the "To" field otherwise everyone will
get it. Archives of old messages are available on the yahoogroups web site.
Though this is a not a public access list,
we reserve the right to unsubscribe anyone who causes gross offense or abuses
the system, otherwise it's all yours. yahoogroups also has a "family
filter" in place which will be on for you unless you switch it off. The
family filter will bounce all suspect mail so I recommend that all users avoid
coarse language!
There are some NHS Safe computing advice guidelines, on
avoiding viruses, especially those spread by e-mails.
ARCHIVES
You may access message
archives of this group. You need web access to get at the archives and be a
MEMBER of yahoogroups. Not everyone who is a member of the UKPPG yahoogroup is
a member of yahoogroups!! The archives are held at:
http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/ukppg
You will need to SIGN IN to access them using your email address and password
(Sign in button top right). Once you have signed in you will see either the
UKPPG home page or your own information. If you need to click on "My
Groups" and then "UKPPG" to get to the UKPPG page.
The archives are accessed through the
"Messages" button on the left hand side. Navigate through the
messages using the << or > type symbols at the top or bottom of the
messages listed. They are listed numerically. They are not listed by thread.
Click on the UKPPG page address as above and
click on "Register" in the top right. You will be asked for some
information. All the field need filling in. Navigate between the fields using the
mouse or the tab button on your keyboard. Follow the directions. You should get
a confirmation email and number code following registration. Once registered
you can use many other yahoogroups depending on your interests.
Any problems, Graham Parton can try to help,
so contact him (e-mail graham.parton@virgin.net).
What a member said in May 2001:
I would just like to say that I have and continue to find the e-mail group
really useful. I am a member of the UKPPG, and the support/educational
opportunities provided are invaluable to pharmacists working in psychiatry,
with £10 a year being a very small price to pay for all the advice/support
material I receive. In my opinion, if you are interested enough in psychiatry
to be reading this now, and are not already a member of the UKPPG, you should
join!
When joining the e-mail group, I think I would be right in saying that it
wouldn't take long for anyone new to psychiatry before the names of some
psychiatric pharmacists became very familiar! (I won't mention individuals, but
I'm sure 'regular readers' know who I mean!) They appear to work incredibly
hard to ensure that our profession is providing vital input to shaping the
future of psychiatric services (as well as running the UKPPG and establishing
important recognition for the group). I just about make it to work and back
everyday, so am completely clueless about how they manage to do all the extra
UKPPG things too! Contributions made by anyone are gratefully received so keep
up the good work, it is appreciated!
SUBSTANCE MISUSE SUBGROUP
This is managed by Graham Parton (busy man) and
Andy Nunney.