Internal Consultation in Health Care Settings

Robert Bor is a Director of Dynamic Change Consultants. He is a Chartered Clinical, Counselling and Health Psychologist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. He is also a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and Member of the American Psychological Association and South African Health Professions Council. He has more than 29 years experience consulting in clinical and organisational settings in the UK and abroad, and has published over 30 books and 200 academic papers and chapters in books.He is a UKCP Registered Family and Couples Therapist having specialised in Systemic Therapy at the Tavistock Clinic London. Rob also practices cognitive behavioural therapy and is an advocate of time limited and solution focused therapeutic approaches. In the NHS, Rob is Lead Clinical Psychologist in Medical Specialties, Infectious Disease Division at the Royal Free Hospital, London. With extensive health care experience, he and his colleagues have developed psychology services in the NHS, GP surgeries as well as in the independent health care sector. He is the Consulting Psychologist to the Leaders in Oncology Care and to the London Clinic, both in Harley Street. Riva Miller is Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Royal Free Hospital, London, UK. She has a background in social work, and is now also a Systemic Psychotherapist and a Family Therapist in the Haemophilia Centre, London.

Robert Bor and, Riva Miller, who run the AIDS Counseling Service at the Royal Free Hospital, London, are internationally known for their work in providing consultation to many hospital departments from within the hospital itself. Internal Consultation in Health Care Settings should, however, be of interest to anyone working within a large organization. The authors have produced a step-by-step guide to negotiating an internal consultation; and, in a very comprehensive manner, they have described their theoretical framework and the consultation work itself, both based on their own application of systemic thinking. The book is illustrated throughout with examples drawn from their own work.

• 1. Introduction 2. How a need arises for internal consultation 3. The process of internal consultation Part 1. Planning the consultation 4. The process of internal consultation Part 2. Conducting the consultation 5. Consultation to a colleague about managing staff/clinical problems: consultation in action 6. Consultation to a clinical supervisor: consultation in action 7. Changing from liaison to consultation in the course of clinical work: consultation in action 8. Setting up and developing services in the hospital: consultation in practice 9. Staff stress and internal consultation 10. A conversation about internal consultation 11. Summary and learning points, Exercises for initiating consultation, Further Reading