RESUMO
AIDS: Hospice care relies on a variety of approaches to heal the mind and the soul, if not the body. While hospice care has been well developed in the United States and the United Kingdom, it has overlooked the crucial tool of psychiatry in responding to the mental health needs of dying residents. Many of the psychiatrist's roles are being handled by social workers, psychologists, and volunteers who are not trained to provide a deeper understanding of the complex picture of organic brain dysfunction, side effects of medical or psychiatric drugs, and psychiatric effects of opportunistic infections or cancers. Psychiatrists are trained to evaluate both the physical and psychiatric pieces of the whole patient picture, enabling a more precise understanding of the effects of dementia, grief, opportunistic infections, substance abuse, HIV treatment, and psychopharmacologic agents. The Psychiatrists Concerned About AIDS organization is working to overcome the exclusion of psychiatrists from acute and palliative care, and thus, resolve the split between psychiatry and hospice care.^ieng