Overcoming barriers to reintegration of patients with schizophrenia: developing a best-practice model for discharge from specialist care.

Many people with schizophrenia are in regular contact with their general practitioners. GPs commonly play a sentinel role in management, but may require support from Area Mental Health Services (AMHSs). The CLIPP (Consultation and Liaison in Primary-care Psychiatry) shared-care model of patient management combines a collocated consultation/liaison service for managing referrals from GPs to specialists with a carefully structured approach to long-term care of patients transferred from AMHS care to GPs. The CLIPP model uses the concept of a "relapse signature", involving recognition of early warning signs of relapse, to simplify clinical monitoring of patients with schizophrenia.