ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses combining clinical and systems consultation in a routine way. The core idea is that professionals undertaking systems consultation should leave their own particular clinical skills behind them, the primary task being to help the other workers, the consultees, use theirs. At one end there will be occasions when the amount of consultation indicated or possible is zero, for example, when a medical worker comes across a patient in a state of acute collapse where not even informal consent can be sought. The role of the clinical team is twofold, essentially seeking to clarify, in consultation with patient, hostel and family: what can the authors contribute, as clinicians? And what can the hostel and the young man's family contribute? However, something new emerges from consultation about this with the supervisor: it emerges that the girl has never before dared say that she fears going blind, like her diabetic grandmother.
