2013 Volume 25 Issue 2 Pages 130-143
The purpose of our psychiatry liaison team is, from a patient-centric perspective, to improve patients' psychoneurotic status, conduct a psychiatric evaluation of the treatment environment, and examine patients as a part of joined-up care. From a staff-centric perspective, we support the mental and physical health of hospital staff and attempt to improve motivation while working and to prevent burnout. In this report, we introduce the process of our psychiatry liaison team activity. We work with patients, their families, medical staff, and regional alliances. In case of an incident, we report on the present conditions and on the actions our team takes. We want to think about the functions and potential of psychiatry liaison teams at general hospitals without a specialized psychiatry inpatient unit and also about the future prospects of such teams. In our hospital, we conduct liaison team rounds and liaison team conferences to reduce patients' stress during hospitalization. We develop brochures to improve patient and family awareness of their emotions during hospitalization. We also develop programs a) to train the staff in preventing falls, particularly those triggered by delirium, b) to provide mental support after suicide and attempted suicide, and c) to deal with violent language or physical violence at the workplace. We are also responsible for five pocket guides, which are compiled into a compact manual. Outside the hospital, we treat patients with physical diseases in 12 mental hospitals in Kobe city, in cooperation with these hospitals. Since June 2012, we have helped develop certification for collaboration in dementia treatment, in cooperation with Nagata-ku Medical Association. Through liaison team rounds and conferences, we plan early remedial intervention and care, and develop a system of collaboration with the necessary specialists. Medical staffs except psychiatrists cooperate with us. Initial remedial intervention is conducted at an early stage by developing a pocket guide of a correspondence manual and guidelines. We attempt to improve the staff's sensitivity and the care for their own mental well-being, by offering cooperative mental support. We share our expertise with the local medical staff, and cooperation with them gradually increases as we spread awareness of mental care. Through the system that handles physical complications, patients of local mental hospitals who also have physical complications are treated.
