ABSTRACT
Liaison arrangements between adult psychiatric, medical and surgical services have been a well-established part of most district health services for at least two decades. It is perhaps surprising, therefore, that such arrangements within the mental health service, between adult and child psychiatric services, have, in general, been so poorly developed. This chapter begins by looking at the costs of inadequate liaison between these two services by means of a case example. It then proceeds to describe a liaison project initiated by the authors—a child psychiatrist (BM) and an adult psychiatrist (AJ)—and another case example demonstrates a successful piece of liaison work through the project. This is followed by a general discussion of the potential benefits from, and obstacles to, closer liaison between child and adult services.
