Consultation Liaison is the branch of Psychiatry that specialises in the interface between medicine and general psychiatry. We see patients currently admitted under medical or surgical specialties at the request of the treating team and aid them in the management of these patients in a multidisciplinary setting. We aim to provide answers to our medical and surgical colleagues who request assessment of the patient's mental health and/or how that patient's mental health could be affecting his or her care and treatment.

Apart from diagnosing and treating mental health problems in an inpatient setting, we also provide advice on psychopharmacology and psychological interventions, risk assessment and assistance in the management of patients who have attempted suicide, assessment of capacity to consent to or refuse treatment, and organ transplant assessments. We provide training in this subspecialty for both undergraduates and post graduates. We are also involved in research which are conducted either by the department itself or in collaboration with other specialties.

Examples of the types of cases we see include:

• Depressive illness and anxiety disorders
• Delirium
• Conversion and dissociative disorders
• Somatoform disorders
• Drug and alcohol withdrawal syndromes