The inpatient psychiatric unit as consultation service.

In response to the changing role of the hospital in the mental health care system, the authors propose a new model for inpatient psychiatric units--that of consultants to outpatient therapists and community and mental health agencies. They discuss key aspects of an inpatient hospitalization that facilitate the tasks of expanded diagnostic evaluation and treatment assessment, and present several cases to illustrate how information and perspectives gleaned from the evaluation can be effectively conveyed to both patient and outpatient therapist, so that it optimizes care of the patient after discharge.