Amresh Srivastava MD,MRCPsych,FRCPC Associate Professore of Psychiatry Western University London.ON Severe Mental Illnesses: Training and Education - About 4% patients in the community suffer from severe mental illness and about 16% from ‘any mental disorder’ Maximum financial and human resource allocations for mental health is consumed in managing severe mental disorders, leaving very little for treatment of early phase of illness and for developing preventive program. All of us, psychiatrists, family physicians, other mental health professionals like, nurse, psychologists, socal workers, occupational therapists, counsellors, and members of advocacy groups and mental health organisations, face the challenge for managing patients who are repeatedly hospitalised, attempt suicide and suffer from complex physical health problem. We need to find innovative, effective and evidence-based methods for management of such complex problems within the available resources. Education is key to success. , knowledge translation, understanding the subject from ABC to advances will be of immense value in achieving the objectives of prevention of mental disorders. We propose to share most fundamental educational contents regarding severe mental illnesses. We shall try to provide a short presentation for understanding a number of clinical problems. We hope to circulate such presentations at least twice in a month.Our objective is to provide minimum basic information in shortest possible time ( not more tha 5 to 10 minnits ). This is an ongoing series which shall address about 40 clinical questions. The first one, attached here is an introduction about severe mental illness. Severe Mental Illnesses: Training and Education