Teaching

Liaison psychiatry offers excellent opportunities for undergraduate teaching, both within a psychiatric programme and for students attached to a medical firm. It is also helpful if the liaison team can present cases at medical grand rounds or other departmental meetings, such as neurology, diabetes or AIDS.

Opportunities should be sought to give lectures to groups of other medical specialists at postgraduate meetings. These functions have an excellent public relations role.

Research

Research opportunities should be developed. They are important in themselves, to further the understanding of psychological factors in medical practice. They also facilitate links with other departments. It is helpful if research proposals are drawn up jointly with non-psychiatry specialists.

There are opportunities for applying for research funds and appointing research workers from a psychiatric background. If the post is an NHS consultant post it is an advantage if it carries an honorary academic appointment with the local university department of psychiatry.

Links with colleagues

A liaison psychiatry post can be isolated initially, before clinical contacts are established. The person appointed needs to maintain professional contacts with both medical and psychiatry colleagues; this can be difficult if the liaison psychiatrist is situated in a general hospital while the main community psychiatry service is located elsewhere. The liaison psychiatrist may thus come to be seen as occupying a no-man's land between medicine and psychiatry but being a member of neither.

The Liaison Psychiatry Faculty of the College already has a Trainees & New Consultants Group and is establishing a panel of mentors, any one of whom may be approached in confidence by a newly appointed consultant to obtain advice and support about service development.

It is important to maintain one's identity as a psychiatrist and to attend committee meetings, postgraduate teaching sessions, case conferences and audit meetings with one's colleagues and to take part in CPD.

Annual appraisals will need to be carried out. These should provide a useful opportunity to review progress and to highlight any deficiencies in the facilities and staff associated with the service. The Liaison Psychiatry Faculty of the College has recommended that liaison psychiatrists should be appraised by specialists in the field and not by a general adult psychiatrist.