A Long Road for Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Education in Hispano-American Countries: We're Finally There!

Abstract: Academic Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry in Latin America emerged and advances in a resource-constrained landscape. Identifying and quickly capitalizing on new opportunities is necessary to develop innovative models that address these new challenges when resources are scarce.





In this symposium, sponsored by ACLP’s Hispanoamerican Special Interest Group, attendants will learn about the clever and translatable models that have solved challenges in education, hospital systems, clinical care, and research, presented by CL Psychiatrist in the context of the particular needs of the countries across Latin America.





Medellin's Hospital Universitario San Vicente Fundación/Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana CL Psychiatry Fellowship program uses an embedded psychiatrist training model. In addition to traditional psychiatric consultations, the CL fellows participate in service rounds, academic activities, and case-discussion boards of the rotating services, including Medicine, Surgery, Burns Unit/Plastic surgery, and Transplant Unit. Dr. Carlos Cardeño-Castro will discuss the educational strategies employed in this model and the benefits of learning a shared language with each unit as a cornerstone for multidisciplinary work and holistic CL training. Additionally, he will present insights on the advantages of this training model from the CL trainee and the Medical/Surgical service perspective.





Dr. Matias Carreño will share the development of a hybrid proactive/collaborative psychiatric CL model in a Hospital Barros Luco in Santiago, Chile. The Covid-19 pandemic strained clinical resources and increased demand for CL psychiatric services globally. In light of this crisis, the CL service at Santiago De Chile's hospital developed a straightforward screening tool that a team of CL psychiatry residents and medical interns used to detect at-risk patients through daily floor visits. Identified cases will then be managed collaboratively with the floor hospitalists. This intervention effectively increased the hospital's power to meet their patients' psychiatric needs.





Dr. Carlos Arnaud will talk about training in use of ketamine and esketamine in medically ill patients as part of the education for residents of the psychiatry program and fellows in consultation liaison psychiatry. He will present data he has collected over the past 5 years on utility in the CL psychiatry setting and the clinical cardiovascular and metabolic safety and the considerations that should be included in the Consultation Liaison curriculum.





Dr. Luis Pintor will talk about the last 15 years research in psychiatric disorders and personality profiles in patients with refractory epilepsy who underwent epilepsy surgery. Emphasis will be made on standardized interviews looking for depression, psychosis, and anxiety in epileptic patients. The experience with trainees assisting the Epilepsy Committee, centered on a multidisciplinary approach, will also be addressed and how surgery improves epileptic patients’ health from a neurological, psychopathological and personality perspective. All the data will be presented from follow up studies starting before the surgery and up to 2 years after surgery.