Communication Skills in Mental Health Care—An Introduction

Fourteen UK-based academics and practitioners contribute 11 chapters outlining the communication process skills needed by mental health professionals to most effectively work with their patients. Throughout the guide, the contributing authors use the Calgary-Cambridge model to provide a clear structure and skill set for handling varied situations. Written for practitioners and students, the text includes an introduction and guidelines for taking a good psychiatric history followed by chapters on specific conditions and situations: anxiety and depression, suicide and self-harm, psychosis, working with families and young people, assessing mental capacity, dealing with emotions, communicating bad news to a patient, and mental health consultations in primary care. Each chapter includes OSCE practice tasks; model answers are included in an appendix and also enacted by the authors on the accompanying DVD. Published by Radcliffe Publishing, UK, and distributed in the US by BookMasters. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)