Communication is at the heart of psychiatric practice. Good communication has positive impact on treatment, treatment satisfaction and treatment adherence. However, different characteristics of psychosis barricade the communication between clinicians and patients. Consequently, the divergent views of needs of care between patients and clinicians may be established due to miscommunication. Such divergence may barricade the planning and the outcome of treatment.
In Hong Kong, the core psychiatric services as well as early intervention for first episode psychosis patients are provided by psychiatric outpatient clinics. Mental health services in Hong Kong are overwhelmed by large demands of the services and inadequate mental health care workforce such as low psychiatrists-to-population ratio and psychiatric nurse-to-population ratio. The large demands of services and inadequate mental health care workforce restrained the services' quality. In some busy psychiatric outpatient clinic, a clinician needs to consult 30 patients in a 3-hour session. Hui et al. (2008) study showed that the mean consultation time in one of the general psychiatric outpatient clinic in Hong Kong is 5.8 minutes.
To sum up, a cost-effectiveness instrument is in need for the early intervention psychiatric outpatient clinic in Hong Kong. The instrument has to reduce the needs' divergence, communication between clinicians and patients, and enhance the patients' involvement of clinical decision-making in the rushed psychiatric consultation. The Two-Way Communication Checklist (2-COM) may satisfy the demand.
