Liaison Psychiatry Pathways connects hospital medicine, emergency care, and specialty clinics with rapid, compassionate mental health and addiction responses. This page turns consultation principles into reliable choreography: single-number referrals, clear triage rules, and time-based targets from bedside request to assessment and feedback. We map handoffs that protect continuity—brief safety plans, means-reduction steps, and next-visit bookings before discharge—so risk doesn’t spike after the stretcher rolls away. If you’re exploring models at a consultation-liaison psychiatry conference (/program/scientific-topics/liaison-psychiatry-pathways), you’ll find templates for order sets, note types (consult vs. co-management), and EHR smart phrases that make responses consistent and teachable. We integrate pain, sleep, and delirium management because physiology and distress interact; we show when to initiate MOUD or AUD meds in the ED/inpatient, how to run brief motivational interventions at the bedside, and how to align psychotropics with medical regimens without creating interactions or falls. Equally important: dignity-first language, family communication scripts, and interpreter pathways that turn crisis into trust.

Implementation lives in partnerships. Hospitalists learn quick screens and warm introductions; nurses trigger protocolized safety steps; pharmacists check interactions and renal/hepatic dosing; social workers arrange transport, housing contacts, and benefits navigation. We emphasize special populations—perinatal, adolescents, older adults, and people with intellectual disability—so pathways adapt rather than exclude. Metrics matter: time to assessment, initiation of evidence-based meds, follow-up kept, return visits, and equity gaps by language or neighborhood. Data feeds a weekly improvement huddle that tunes staffing, hours, and training. Finally, liaison work should reduce moral distress as much as readmissions; we outline debriefs and supervision that keep teams well. Pair this page with Consultation-Liaison and SUD for deeper inpatient addiction protocols.