The Consultation Conference: A New Model of Collaboration for Child Psychiatry and Primary Care

Abstract

Because of the relative shortage of available child psychiatrists, primary-care providers are increasingly expanding their role in the provision of mental health care. Accordingly, there is an increased need to develop a standardized approach to teaching specialized skills to these providers. One method of doing so is to expand the child psychiatrist’s consultative role to include the structured discussion of patient cases. By emphasizing the reasoning behind treatment recommendations, the psychiatrist can assist the primary-care provider in applying this knowledge to other patients in his or her practice. A group setting, or “consultation conference,” can be used to involve more providers—who, in turn, become resources for each other. This model of a group conference adapts principles of adult learning (1–5) to facilitate the dual consultative and educational goals. Providers who care for patients in the same (or similar) setting come together as a group to share their experience and knowledge. The psychiatrist assists in that group setting, functioning both as expert resource and facilitator. Participants discuss problem cases, thus learning in their own context while receiving assistance in the understanding and management of actual patients (indirect consultation).