My favorite tips for engaging the difficult patient on consultation-liaison psychiatry services.
Disengagement is the main enemy for the consultation-liaison psychiatrist. The goal of the first interview is to transform the unwilling, uncooperative, and often difficult and hostile patient into an engaged interview participant. Otherwise, the interview is an unproductive interrogation and an unpleasant power struggle. Once the difficult patient is engaged, the more typical psychiatric interview can begin. The three interview-engagement tips or techniques described are among the author's favorite ways to overcome the impediments to engagement most often associated with difficult patients.
Knesper
David J
DJ
Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. dknesper@umich.edu
D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological / Q000379:methods*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy; D017008:Negotiating; D010349:Patient Compliance; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012017:Referral and Consultation