title: A very modest proposal for 1990s C/L psychiatry.
abstract: The prediction that consultation-liaison psychiatry would play an integral role in the management of all medical/surgical patients in large hospitals has not come to pass. The primary reason is that no adequate funding mechanism has ever been found to support such a large endeavor. The economic climate as we enter the 1990s makes such funding even less likely. The authors suggest that C/L psychiatry accept a lesser role, largely confined to teaching hospitals. That role, which has been successful at a large public teaching hospital for nearly 10 years, encompasses serving as a primary psychiatric teaching site for medical students, a primary teaching site for psychiatry residents and other postgraduate physicians rotating through psychiatry, a source of innovative dispositions for medically ill psychiatric patients, and a source of opportunity for interdisciplinary research.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Dallas 75235-9070.
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Weiner
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sadler
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Fenton
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Fitzpatrick
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Crowder
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Goodkin
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical / Q000639:trends; D005544:Forecasting; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000191:economics / Q000193:education* / Q000639:trends; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000191:economics / Q000639:trends; D012106:Research