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Liaison Psychiatry: Planning Services for Specialist
Settings
Eds: Peveler, Feldman &
Friedman
2000 RCPsych Publications
Reviewed by Jackie Gordon
Liaison Psychiatry - Planning Services for Specialist
Settings makes a powerful and compelling case for my
existence. I liked it immensely.
As a trainee liaison psychiatrist who has to commute to London
in order to get liaison experience,
I am in a good position to see that the provision of liaison
psychiatry services in the United Kingdom is patchy. This is
probably because existing medical and general psychiatric services
can, at a stretch, fill in the cracks where liaison psychiatry
could (should?) be.
Chapter One argues that liaison services in general are
invaluable.
As subsequent chapters unfold, the many and varied liaison
subspecialties are considered.
This book is the sequel to a 1994 publication, Liaison
Psychiatry: Defining Needs and Planning Services, and has
a greater emphasis on the need for specialist services.
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Chapters
Chapters are written by different and widely experienced
authors, and this gives the book a diversity of style and outlook.
Areas covered are:
- A & E
- deliberate self-harm
- behavioural disturbance
- trauma
- the pain clinic
- ITU, HIV/AIDS
- the maternity hospital
- gynaecological patients
- the surgical unit
- palliative care
- the mentally unwell medical workforce.
Each subspecialty looks at typical psychiatric and psychological
problems encountered in that field, based on experience and
research. It also covers clinical management and service issues in
some detail. The book is not as dry as its cover may suggest. I
read this book on my commuter train - and the journey did not take
any longer - as my husband had feared! It is, largely, a good
read
Highlights
Highlights of this book were:
- Chapter One, (the rough guide to
getting a new consultant liaison post)
- Chapter Six (which brought the
Mental Health Act to life - honestly
- Chapter Fourteen on palliative
care (for its sensitivity and solid common sense).
I was less happy with Chapter Five, on medical management of
acute behavioural disturbance in the general hospital, because the
information in the drug tables was badly written. For example, you
do not give intramuscular diazepam, nor in such massive
doses. At least, I don’t.
The plus
points
In conclusion, I genuinely think that this book is a must for
anyone embarking on a career in liaison psychiatry. It contains a
huge amount of relevant knowledge and experience, and presents
management and service issues in a palatable form.
I also think all psychiatry trainees taking Part 2 will
find the chapter on the Mental Health Act and common law in the
general hospital helpful, especially for PMPs.
Overall, I was left with a much wider perspective on
what liaison psychiatry can offer. As a liaison SpR living in an
area with no current liaison service, it gave me excellent material
to make a convincing case to my future employers - that they need a
liaison service, and moreover that I am the woman to set it up for
them!
Jackie Gordon
SpR in Psycho-oncology, St Thomas’ Hospital, London SE1
7EH
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