Council on Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry focuses on the psychiatric care of people who are medically ill. It recognizes that integration of biopsychosocial care is vital to the well-being of patients, and that full membership in the house of medicine is essential to the well-being of psychiatry. It accomplishes its goals by initiatives related to research, clinical care, education and health care policy.

Highlights of Responsibilities

• Provide leadership at the interface of psychiatry with other medical specialties.
• Provide training and education to psychiatrists and other physicians, residents (including psychiatric residents), and medical students at scientific meetings and in other settings about the special needs of those with psychiatric illness in medically ill and complex medically ill populations.
• Provide scientific and clinical expertise on issues surrounding comorbidities such as, but not limited to HIV psychiatry and integrated care.
• Advocate for the enhancement of training in consultation-liaison psychiatry in medical schools and residency training programs.
• Create educational materials about the needs of those with psychiatric illness in medically ill and complex medically ill populations and the role of psychiatry/psychiatrists in meeting those needs for medical and non-medical audiences.
• Work with other components and/or organizations on health care policy initiatives: the evaluation and design of delivery systems, models of care and payment mechanisms aimed at promoting high degrees of quality and cost-effectiveness in those with significant medical-psychiatric comorbidity.
• Support APA’s advocacy efforts to increase the funding of research in these areas.
• Support and/or lead ongoing efforts to improve the recruitment of psychiatrists into consultation-liaison psychiatry fellowship programs.

View Current Members

Staff Liaison

• Esther Gershenson