Cultural Consultation Service (CCS)
This local and national service aims at providing clinical cultural consultations and professional development including teaching and research enquiries to all staff in Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and to any clinical and research services across the UK and Europe. This is not a parallel out‐patient service. Instead, it focuses on consultations with clinic staff who wish to seek advice on cultural issues affecting patient care or their own clinical service team. Consultations include issues that might arise from any cross‐cultural encounter between clinicians, patients, carers, and the wider community.
Please note: this service is not exclusively focused on Black & Minority Ethnic patients. Referrals may well include clinicians from any Black & Minority Ethnic group who may encounter clinical challenges with patients from a White European background, or from clinicians who experience cultural challenges with patients who belong to the clinician’s own ethnic group.
Objective
Provide clinical cultural consultations and capacity building for Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust staff. Referrals are welcome from any clinical service in C&I, Trusts across the United Kingdom, and from clinicians in Europe. This includes in‐patient, out‐patient including Community Mental Health Trust services, planned MHA assessments, team conflicts over cultural issues, etc.
Staffing and venue
Sushrut Jadhav; Lead Clinician, Cultural Consultation Services, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust; Consultant Psychiatrist, Focus Homeless Outreach Service; & Professor of Cultural Psychiatry, University College London. Please click here for details.
David Mosse; Honorary Cultural Consultant, Cultural Consultation Services, Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust. Professor of Social Anthropology, SOAS University of London. Peer-Supported Open Dialogue Practitioner, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust. Please click here for details.
Dr Arun Enara; Training Fellow, Cultural Consultation Service. Dr Enara is currently a higher trainee in General Adult and Old Age Psychiatry in the North Central London rotation. He trained as a psychiatrist in India before migrating to the UK. He works with the C & I Cultural Consultation Services and Focus Homeless Outreach Services, on Mondays, as part of his special interest sessions.
Consultations with CCS experts may be held at any place convenient and culturally safe for the clinician referrer and the patient.
Referral policy
RC/Consultant consent must be sought by the referrer. Completed Referral form (see link on this website), to be sent to the CCS. Upon receipt of the referral, we will make telephone contact with the referrer within 3 working days and allocate a time slot based on mutual convenience. For in-patient referrals, the pending outcome of the cultural consultation should not delay discharge.
Operation
Primarily meeting with the clinician(s) to provide clinical consultations, help them conduct a cultural assessment, and unpack the cultural psychodynamics of the 'problem'. In very occasional situations, to meet with the patient and care co-ordinator &/or RC and conduct a Bloomsbury Cultural Formulation Interview. Click here for details. In other situations, clinical issues or information needed could also be discussed over the telephone or on a video platform. In all instances, mandatory bespoke readings will also be provided and discussed in the follow-up meeting.
The CCS service does not offer cultural fixes, instruments and scales to solve the problem of 'culture'. The emphasis is on appreciating the processes through which wider cultural conflicts, alliances and strengths in society are embodied in patient suffering, and how the clinicians and their institutions’ cultural identity shapes the eliciting, engagement, clinical diagnosis and management of their patient's problem.
Timeline
The service is available on the second Monday of each month, 11am - 2pm (when in person, travel time may need to be allowed for). Emergency referrals can be accommodated at any time during the week and is likely to be over telephone and/or video platform.
Outcome
The service will aim to empower clinicians to address cultural dimensions of engagement, diagnosis, and management. It aims to enhance their clinical cultural sensitivity and team capacity building.
Monitoring
The service will be monitored through an evaluation & feedback form, Trust Audit officer, and senior clinical line managers.
For referrals
Please contact: Professor Sushrut Jadhav, Lead Clinician, C&I Cultural Consultation Service, 4 Greenland Road, London NW1 0AS