Aims and method To develop a simple, pragmatic typology to characterise the nature of liaison interventions delivered by a liaison service in a National Health Service setting.We carried out a retrospective electronic case-note review of referrals to a ward-based liaison psychiatry service. Results Three hundred and forty-four patients were referred to the service over a 12-month period. Ten different types of liaison interventions were identified, with the most common interventions being diagnosis (112 patients, 32.6%), medication management (57 patients, 16.6%), risk assessment and treatment (56 patients, 16.3% each). Mental Health Act work accounted for the greatest number of contacts per patient (median 7). Clinical implications There are inherent limitations in any single-site observational study, as site-specific results cannot be generalised to other liaison services. The intervention categories we developed, however, are easy to use and will provide a way of comparing and benchmarking the range of interventions delivered by different liaison psychiatry services.
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CITATION STYLE
Guthrie, E., McMeekin, A., Thomasson, R., Khan, S., Makin, S., Shaw, B., & Longson, D. (2016). Opening the “black box”: Liaison psychiatry services and what they actually do. Psychiatric Bulletin, 40(4), 175–180. https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.115.051771