The Cultural Consultation Service of the Jewish General Hospital Department of Psychiatry offers clinical consultations to psychiatric, medical and mental health practitioners, as well as inservice training in culture and mental health. This document contains the following information:
What is Cultural Consultation?
What constitutes an appropriate case for cultural consultation?
Who can make a referral to Cultural Consultation Service?
How do I request a consultation?
What is the function of the Cultural Consultation Service?
What are other activities of Cultural Consultation Service?
How can I contact Cultural Consultation Service?
What is Cultural Consultation?
A cultural consultation is a comprehensive assessment of the social and cultural factors influencing diagnostic, prognostic and treatment issues of patients with mental health problems.
What constitutes an appropriate case for cultural consultation ?
Cultural consultation is best reserved for cases where there are difficulties in understanding, diagnosing and treating patients that may be due to cultural differences between clinician and patient. Such differences can occur even when patient and clinician are from a similar background because of wide variation within social and cultural groups.
Who can make a referral to our service ?
Requests for consultation can be made by (or through) any physician or licensed mental health practitioner and will be screened to determine if they are appropriate. A primary caregiver must be involved with the patient at the time of the consultation to ensure ongoing treatment and follow-up.
How do I request a consultation ?
A consultation request can be made by contacting the CCS at 514-340-8222 ext. 5655 Monday to Friday between 8:30 and 4:30 p.m.
At the time of the request, the consultee should be prepared to provide the reasons for the consultation as well as basic identifying information about the patient (e.g. DOB, occupation, languages spoken, address, immigration or refugee status, Medicare number etc.).
What is the function of the CCS ?
The CCS may provide specific cultural information, links to community resources and formal cultural psychiatric or psychological assessment and recommendations for treatment. The CCS is supported by a research grant from Health Canada to evaluate the effectiveness of this type of service. Accordingly, consultees will be asked to respond to a brief questionnaire on their satisfaction with the consultation.
Other activities of Cultural Consultation Service:
- In-service training
- Internships, rotations for trainees in psychiatry, clinical psychology and other mental health disciplines
- Development of an internet database of resources on culture and mental health
Contacting Cultural Consultation Service:
You can contact CCS using Mail, email, or telephone:
CCS
Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry (ICFP) - Room 218B
Sir Mortimer B. Davis -- Jewish General Hospital
4333 Cote Ste-Catherine Road
Montreal, Quebec
H3T-1E4
Tel.: 514-340-8222 x 25655
Fax: 514-340-7503
antonella.clerici [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Email)
Director: G. Eric Jarvis, MD
Coordinator: Antonella Clerici
