Joint work in paediatrics: a child psychiatry perspective.

Child Psychiatry (as one of the 'Cinderella' specialities) has had to look carefully at its interface with other disciplines and at the management of the referral stage of cases. Because so much of our work is in liaison with others, failure to clarify the expectation of the referral, the degree of collaboration needed and who is taking responsibility for what, results in dissatisfactions and misunderstandings for the referrer. This paper is written in the hope that some of this 'thinking through' that we have undertaken might be helpful to paediatricians making tertiary referrals. First, practices in child psychiatry are considered and then possible implications in paediatrics considered.