Consultation Liaison (CL) Psychiatry

Consultation Liaison (CL) Psychiatry is a specialist psychiatry service that provides clinical psychiatry consultation and support to the acute medical & surgical wards at Sunshine & Footscray Hospitals.

Consultation Liaison Psychiatry is a subspecialty of psychiatry that works at the medical interface providing; psychiatric assessment, advice, support and recommendations for consumers with mental health issues within acute general hospital inpatient settings.

• We aim to support consumers/patients with their mental health and wellbeing while admitted to the Sunshine or Footscray Hospitals for physical health treatment
• We provide specialised services to staff from the different medical and surgical units of the hospital

The Consultation Liaison (CL) service is staffed by consultant psychiatrists, psychiatry registrars and senior nursing staff. Our CL clinicians provide comprehensive specialist mental health assessments, provision of diagnostic formulation, short-term in-hospital care and advice about treatment.

The team will see people of any age who are in a mental health crisis, if they have a pre-existing mental illness or if there are other concerns or questions about their mental health.

Our clinicians provide ongoing education for the general hospital staff in identifying, assessing and managing people who are experiencing issues with their mental health and advice about mental health follow-up when people are discharged from hospital.

This service is available for people experiencing mental health issues or psychological distress in the medical or surgical wards at the Sunshine or Footscray Hospitals

Referrals are made to the CL Psychiatry service by medical staff when a person is a patient in hospital and when the treating team believes that they would benefit from mental health assessment and support.

Internal referrals only.

Referrals can only be accepted from a person's treating team at the Sunshine or Footscray Hospitals.