I feel obliged to counter the assertion by O'Gara & Sauer (Reference O'Gara and Sauer2002) that decrepit wards are a major contributor to poor recruitment into psychiatry. If true, it need not be so.

As an old age psychiatrist in two Black Country towns (Dudley and Wolverhampton — the latter having recently been dedicated a Black Country city) I have had several undergraduates attached to my teams. We are not a ward-based speciality, our work is done with older people in their own homes. Some of these homes may be decrepit but it is the people within that matter. They have grown old in their homes and all have interesting stories to tell. They are good people who have experienced adversity scarcely imaginable to today's cossetted youth and are the more fascinating for it.

Our students have told us (and I have no reason to doubt their sincerity) that they have felt enriched by the experience of helping these important people in their homes. The students have learned from us and we, particularly if they have been local people, have learned a lot from them. All this is done with little recourse to the great god ‘resources’.