8.7 Writing Letters and Reports: Contents

Content suggestions:

  • Your qualifications and experience 
  • Clinical context. Source & reason for referral? Your role? Length of contact? 
  • Observations e.g. external signs of symptoms, or difficulty giving account
  • Treatment provided and/or planned.
  • Any conclusions e.g. about diagnosis, risk, capacity, prognosis
  • Clinical factors that affect the person’s ability to give a coherent account 
  • Needs for further information e.g. expert evidence to document scars?
  • Statement of truth and recognition of duty to the court‍