ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to equip the practitioner to reach the 'handover' checkpoint. It outlines a range of ways to hand over the management plan in ways acceptable to the patient. Handover involves interaction between the knowledge and belief systems of two people, patient and doctor. Surrounded as we are by slogans and the hard sell, it is easy to believe that only recently has communication become something to be 'skilled at'. We have reached a stage where the patient has conveyed to the doctor a portion of her belief system which is to do with her problem and its context, and the doctor has brought to the forefront of his mind that portion of his own belief system which he thinks will benefit the patient. The object of the exercise is to bring these two 'portions' into contact and overlap, so that when the two parties separate again, each has been changed as a result of the interaction.
