Child psychiatric consultation service to community agencies: a collaborative approach involving three community agencies.

OBJECTIVE To report the early experience of a multiagency child psychiatric consultation service. METHOD The program is described, and the demographic characteristics of clients referred to the consultation program over the first 25 months of operation are presented. Referrals were examined for demographics and the questions consultees wanted to have answered. RESULTS In 59 of 100 consultations, physical and/or sexual abuse was proved or highly suspected. In 82 of the 100 cases, consultees had questions pertaining to management issues. Questions related to diagnostic issues numbered 62, and there were 45 questions about safety issues. CONCLUSION Effective psychiatric consultations services to rural areas can be established. Once established, the questions of consultees can provide an effective training ground for future community-oriented child psychiatrists.