Social workers have worked with colleagues from other disciplines since the early days of the profession; yet, they were without clear models to guide this interdisciplinary work. The author uses multidisciplinary theoretical literature and conceptual and research pieces from social work literature to support the development of such a model. First, current trends relevant to interdisciplinary practice are noted to emphasize its importance. The article describes a two-part model. Part one of the model consists of five components that constitute interdisciplinary collaboration between social workers and other professionals: interdependence, newly created professional activities, flexibility, collective ownership of goals, and reflection on process. Part two of the model consists of four influences on collaboration: professional role, structural characteristics, personal characteristics and a history of collaboration. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

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The integration of prison hospice programs into the prison settings poses a unique organizational challenge. Generally, prisons adhere to strict functional boundaries and rigid chains of command in their operations and delivery of services. Yet hospice programs by their very nature involve interdisciplinary collaboration and coordination. Furthermore, hospice programs require the creation of more compassionate settings in which the end of life may occur, which challenges widely held beliefs that prisons must be stark and punitive and that prisoners must be treated with uniformity. Through interviews with prison hospice coordinators, this study explores the structure and operations of hospice programs, how well hospice programs are integrated within the larger prison community, and the impact that prison hospice programs have on the prison environment in general.

Expanded school mental health (ESMH) utilizes interprofessional collaboration to implement learning support and mental health promotion strategies in schools. This study reports on the early development and initial psychometric examination of a new scale, the Index of Interprofessional Team Collaboration for Expanded School Mental Health (IITC-ESMH), for measuring the functioning of interprofessional teams. Exploratory factor analysis results, using data collected from 436 members of interprofessional teams in schools, yielded a 26-item scale with a four-factor model (a) Reflection on Process, (b) Professional Flexibility, (c) Newly Created Professional Activities, and (d) Role Interdependence. Cronbach's alphas for the four factors were .91, .91, .84, and .80 respectively. The findings from this study provide evidence to support the IITC-ESMH as a reliable instrument for measuring interprofessional collaboration.