Medical Psychology
Consultation Liaison Psychology
Westmead Hospital and Western Sydney Area Mental Health Services
Another term for the such a service is ‘clinical health psychology’. Consultation-liaison (C-L) psychology combines the disciplines of clinical psychology, behavioural medicine and health psychology. The consultation-liaison field has been gathering momentum since the 1940’s when veterans hospitals started to employ larger number of psychologists. Many large hospitals today have dedicated consultation-liaison psychology positions. The purpose of such positions is to provide consultations (assessment and intervention) at the request of the treating medical teams. Often liaison relationships develop with medical teams that have a high demand for clinical psychology input (such as a burns unit, an oncology ward or amputee team).
The position of 19 hours per week is within the Department of Medical Psychology and is integrated with the Consultation-Liaison Team of the Department of Psychiatry. The clinical psychologist provides a clinical assessment and intervention service to all of the medical units of Westmead Hospital. While referrals are accepted from all medical units, ongoing liaison relationships have been established with the Surgical and Amputee teams. The position is currently held by Christopher Basten, a clinical psychologist.
Parallel services within Westmead Hospital include the clinical psychologists in the PTSD unit, the Gynaecological Oncology unit and the Adolescent Medicine Department. These psychology position are all circumscribed to a particular area within the hospital. Whereas the Liaison Clinical Psychologist covers a broader spectrum of referring teams and presenting problems.
Christopher Basten,
is the Clinical Psychologist in the Consultation-Liaison Psychology position.
Updated: 20th April 2006 fsc
