key: cord-0965102-p54ue3kw
authors: Funk, Margo C.; Beach, Scott R.; Shah, Sejal B.; Boland, Robert
title: Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry in the Age of COVID-19: Reaffirming Ourselves and Our Worth
date: 2020-04-21
journal: Psychosomatics
DOI: 10.1016/j.psym.2020.04.013
sha: d847494794c4a63faeca4c7cda6acb78ecdf8e74
doc_id: 965102
cord_uid: p54ue3kw

nan

administration. It is therefore essential to recognize that the tone set by C-L psychiatry, as the "face" of mental health, may inform the facility's entire approach to mental healthcare delivery during crisis.

C-L psychiatry teams must gracefully step into this unofficial leadership role deliberately modeling a well-informed, flexible, and balanced approach. Whatever is "lost" (pride, sense of "patient ownership", etc.) by stepping down from face-to-face clinical interaction can be gained through the demonstration of courageous leadership.

This modeling extends into our core liaison role in this time where fear and anxiety are normal adaptive responses to a life-threatening pandemic. Our training and experience allow us to reach into the most uncomfortable psychic places within ourselves, and to assist others in the same, without shame. Clinicians are combatting the ultimate in moral injury, unable to provide the high-quality healthcare they were trained to do, sometimes fighting within healthcare systems that were disadvantaged from the start. Never has the C-L psychiatry role been so important to support and hold the therapeutic container for the caregivers of medicine. What we may or may-not prove now in face-to-face respiratory management of a complex COVID-19 ventilator weaning, we will prove with a nuanced approach to the intricacies of the healthcare system and the people within.

Disclosures: The authors report no proprietary or commercial interest in any product mentioned or concept discussed in this article.

Characteristics of Health Care Personnel with COVID-19 -United States