Implicit bias is an ingrained, unconscious cultural stereotype that can negatively affect a person's interactions with members of stigmatized groups, including sexual and gender minorities. Clinician implicit biases may negatively impact the quality of patient care.
This article uses 4 case scenarios to illustrate how implicit bias among psychiatrists and other clinicians can affect patient-clinician communication and diminish the quality of health care provided to sexual and gender minority people. We offer strategies for clinicians to recognize, challenge, and address implicit bias.
Through continuing education, self-reflection, and practice, psychiatrists and other clinicians can improve communication and foster more affirming care experiences for their sexual and gender minority patients, with the goal of addressing and ultimately eliminating sexual and gender minority health disparities.
The purpose of this study was to describe the medical complications of anorexia nervosa (AN) to enable a consult-liaison psychiatrist to be familiar with these complications when involved with the care of a hospitalized patient with AN.
Comprehensive PubMed search of English language publications of adult patients with AN was carried out using keywords, phrases, and medical subject headings of anorexia nervosa–medical complications, cardiac, osteoporosis, gastrointestinal, hematological, and endocrine. The database search was restricted by time of publication of studies from 2005 to 2020.
Every organ system can be adversely affected by AN. Most are fully reversible with time and informed medical care. A multidisciplinary team is needed to optimally care for patients who are hospitalized as a result of the medical complications of their AN.
Consult-liaison psychiatrists are asked to help in the care of patients with AN who are admitted to a hospital because of a medical complication of their illness. Being familiar with these complications and their treatments will optimize their hospital stays and the care provided. In addition, involving other relevant ancillary services is an important care consideration.
Racial/ethnic minorities experience a greater burden of mental health problems than white adults in the United States. The collaborative care model is increasingly being adopted to improve access to services and to promote diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric diseases.
This systematic review seeks to summarize what is known about collaborative care on depression outcomes for racial/ethnic minorities in the United States.
This review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses method. Collaborative care studies were included if they comprised adults from at least one racial/ethnic minority group, were located in primary care clinics in the United States, and had depression outcome measures. Core principles described by the University of Washington Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions Center were used to define the components of collaborative care.
Of 398 titles screened, 169 full-length articles were assessed for eligibility, and 19 studies were included in our review (10 randomized controlled trials, 9 observational). Results show there is potential that collaborative care, with or without cultural/linguistic tailoring, is effective in improving depression for racial/ethnic minorities, including those from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
Collaborative care should be explored as an intervention for treating depression for racial/ethnic minority patients in primary care. Questions remain as to what elements of cultural adaptation are most helpful, factors behind the difficulty in recruiting minority patients for these studies, and how the inclusion of virtual components changes access to and delivery of care. Future research should also recruit individuals from less studied populations.
There are few evidence-informed guidelines and findings to show that the use of sitters improves patient safety; overall, it is a costly intervention to address patients with disruptive behaviors. Objective: The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that the creation of a multidisciplinary consultation-liaison (C-L) team, integrated with a psychiatric C-L team, together can decrease sitter use and improve outcomes using nonpharmacologic interventions.
This retrospective study describes the planning, implementation, and data collection using in creating an multidisciplinary C-L team to collaborate with the psychiatric C-L team and outcomes to support the approach. The multidisciplinary C-L team was composed of advanced practice registered nurses and creative art therapists. The teams worked closely with the medical units to develop and monitor criteria for sitter use. The key outcomes of the intervention improved patient safety and reduced overall cost.
In the first year of implementation of a multidisciplinary C-L approach, sitter use decreased by 72%. Nonpharmacologic interventions improved patient outcomes by providing education to medical staff that enhanced the assessment and implementation of enhanced observer use across all the medical units. Subsequent data also reflect a sustained reduction in cost over the next 2-year period, saving the institution nearly $70K a month.
An multidisciplinary C-L and psychiatric C-L team collaborated on the need for psychiatric medications, or nonpharmacologic interventions to address behaviors and decrease the need for an enhanced observer. The teams worked together to make policy revisions and algorithms and provide education, the result of which was significant financial savings and improved patient safety.