ABSTRACT
Through experience we have learned that it is helpful if clinical work is preceeded by consultation, wherever possible. In some cases, consultation can obviate the neccessity for further clinical work. A new referral provides an oportunity for changing the emphasis from liaison to consultation work. In the example set out below, a ward sister telephoned our counselling unit in the hospital and asked for one of the counsellors to come up to the ward as soon as possible. She would not provide any further information over the telephone as she said it was dificult to speak from the nurses’ station. It was a ward on which six months previously, there had been complications around counselling, testing and diagnosing a heterosexual man with HIV. In a case review, it was felt that if the counselling team had been involved in the case at an earlier stage, some of the management problems may not have been quite as serious. The first clue, therefore, from the new referral, was that there was considerable anxiety over the management of a similar case and that counsellors should be involved at a very early stage.
