PsychiatrieBulle'lin(1992),16,531-532 Original articles

Greater care in the community will lead to the geographic dispersal of psychiatric services and the role of communications technology will become increasingly important. McLaren et al (1991) described the potential role for new communications technology, such as interactive television, in the provision of psychiatric services but before resorting to new communications technology it will be import ant to ensure that full use is being made of existing technology such as the telephone. The telephone is widely used in the UK health service but poorly understood, in contrast to the USA where it has been recognised as an important medium for care delivery (Hallam, 1989). This pilot study was designed to gather information on the current role of the telephone in an acute psychiatric service and to aid the planning of the use of more advanced communications technology such as interactive television. The study A naturalistic observational approach was used. Two acute psychiatric wards in the same unit were chosen for study. The unit was sited in a large general hospital and served a deprived inner city catchment area. The telecommunications system in the general hospital had recently been updated. The obser vations were recorded by two psychiatrists, each allo cated one of the wards. They observed in four hour blocks, one block per day, to ensure that each period between 09.00 and 21.00 was observed once on each ward. They were both asked to record the time each telephone call was made. The observer on ward A was asked to record the nature of the call and if possible other communication occurring in the ward office. The observer on ward B was asked to concen trate on face-to-face communication and if possible record the nature of the calls. While recording, the observer sat in the ward officepositioned to minimise disruption to staff. Finding