Primary care, once seen as a venue where established cases of illness received treatment, is now being seen as a setting where health-promoting advice can be made available so that illnesses can be prevented, and where illnesses may be caught in an early stage and prevented from developing into those disorders familiar to psychiatrists. These two activities – primary and secondary prevention – are an additional function for primary care, and the potential for each has barely been explored.

Primary prevention is, of course, the business of many others besides the primary care team: teachers, politicians, community leaders, members of housing departments and housing associations, as well as many engaged in voluntary organisations; all have important parts to play in the prevention of ill-health. The extent of harm done to children who have suffered physical and sexual abuse in children has only really been appreciated in the past 10 years or so, with fairly convincing accounts of the frequency of such occurrences in the early life of those who later develop anxiety or depression. However, apart from activities of social workers in carrying out work with abused children, society has still not thought through the problems involved in preventing these abuses.

The possibilities of systematic education being given to school-children in child-rearing and parenthood have not really been explored in this country. Similarly, little systematic information is made available to the general public on the harm done to children by divorce.