title: Communication skills in psychiatry training.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Mental health clinicians can experience problems communicating distressing diagnostic information to patients and their families, especially about severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Evidence suggests that interpersonal communication skills can be effectively taught, as has been demonstrated in the specialty of oncology. However, very little literature exists with respect to interpersonal communication skills training for psychiatry. This paper provides an overview of the communication skills training literature.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The report reveals significant gaps exist and highlights the need for advanced communication skills training for mental health clinicians, particularly about communicating a diagnosis and/or prognosis of schizophrenia. A new communication skills training framework for psychiatry is described, based on that used in oncology as a model. This model promotes applied skills and processes that are easily adapted for use in psychiatry, providing an effective platform for the development of similar training programs for psychiatric clinical practice.
authors.affiliation: Hunter New England Mental Health, Mater Hospital Campus, Newcastle, NSW, and; School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia philippa.ditton-phare@hnehealth.nsw.gov.au.
authors.forename: Philippa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ditton-Phare
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Halpin
authors.affiliation: Hunter New England Mental Health, Mater Hospital Campus, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Harsimrat
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sandhu
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, and; Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health, Mater Hospital Campus, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.affiliation: Hunter New England Mental Health, Mater Hospital Campus, Newcastle, NSW, and; School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vamos
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, and; Priority Research Centre for Health Behaviour, School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Sue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Outram
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Education, Hamad Medical Corporation, Weill Cornell Medical College, Doha-Qatar.
authors.forename: Carma L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Bylund
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Tomer
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health, Monash University, Clayton, VIC, and; Schizophrenia Research Institute (SRI), Australia.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kissane
authors.affiliation: Hunter New England Mental Health, Mater Hospital Campus, Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: School of Medicine and Public Health, Faculty of Health, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, and; Priority Research Centre for Translational Neuroscience and Mental Health, Mater Hospital Campus, Newcastle, NSW, and; Schizophrenia Research Institute (SRI), Australia.
authors.forename: Carmel
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Loughland
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003479:Curriculum; D006801:Humans; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000175:diagnosis
keywords: communication skills training; curriculum development; education program; psychiatry; schizophrenia