Assessment of referrals to an OT consultation-liaison service: a retrospective and comparative study.
The objective was to conduct a retrospective and comparative study of the requests for consultation-liaison (RCLs), during a period of six years, sent to the Occupational Therapy (OT) team that acts as the Consultation-liaison Service in Mental Health. During the studied period 709 RCLs were made and 633 patients received OT consultations. The comparison group was extended to 1 129 consecutive referrals to the psychiatric CL service, within the same period and that were also retrospectively reviewed. Regarding to RCLs to the OT team, most of the subjects were women with incomplete elementary schooling, with a mean age of 39.2 years, and were self-employed or retired. Internal Medicine was responsible for most of the RCLs. The mean length of hospitalization was 51 days and the mean rate of referral was 0.5%, with the most frequent reason for the request being related to the emotional aspects and the most frequent psychiatric diagnosis was mood disorder. It is concluded that there is a clear demand for the development of consultation-liaison in OT, particularly with regard to the promotion of mental health in general hospitals.
Division of Occupational Therapy, Department of Neuroscience and Behavior, Faculty of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Maria Gabriela J B
MG
Gomes
Luciene V
LV
De Morais
Flávia De L
Fde L
Osório
Catalina Camas
CC
Cabrera
Elaine C
EC
Bertuso-Pelá
Marysia M R
MM
De Carlo
Jaime E C
JE
Hallak
José Onildo B
JO
Contel
Sonia Regina
SR
Loureiro
Marcos Hortes N
MH
Chagas
José Alexandre S
JA
Crippa
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D006785:Hospitals, University / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult