Objective: To review the status of consultation–liaison psychiatry and the factors shaping it, and suggest strategies for its future development. Method: In addition to searches of the main computerized psychiatric databases and review of relevant Commonwealth of Australia publications, the author drew on discussions with national and international colleagues in his role as convenor of the International Organization for Consultation–Liaison Psychiatry. Results: Physical/psychiatric comorbidity and somatization, the conditions in which consultation–liaison psychiatry specializes, are the commonest forms of psychiatric presentation in the community. They are as disabling as psychotic disorders, and comorbid depression in particular is a predictor of increased morbidity and mortality. Acknowledging this, the Second Australian National Mental Health Plan called for consultation–liaison psychiatry to be allowed to participate fully in the mental health care system. It stated that failure to define the term ‘severe mental health problems and mental disorders’ in the First Plan had led to some public mental health systems erroneously equating severity w
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