Contribution of
the
Consultant
Psychiatrist
The Consultant Psychiatrist occupies a
role that has evolved out of a marriage between that of "Physician
Superintendent" whose responsibility to provide medical oversight
of the health and well being of asylum inmates supported a position
of considerable corporate power, and that of "Personal Physician",
which is one of directly specifying the "treatment" of individuals
"under their care". Growing interest in less medically oriented
approaches to mental health and related multidisciplinary
practices, and socially wider "post modern" approaches to the role
of the professional
are challenging these orthodoxies.