Book Reviews

Abstract

Knowledge-in-practice in the caring professions: Multidisciplinary perspectives. England: Ashgate Publishing. 256 pages. Paperback. I was attracted to this book because I am unsure whether I believe in multidisciplinary practice. This may sound like a silly thing to say because good teaming presumably allows ISSUE 24(1), 2012 AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND SOCIAL WORK PAGE 75 for the application, and the coordination, of multiple professional skills; and it surely means that the client/patient/service user does not have to navigate between agencies. Moreover, service integration seems to make sense as a response to increased demands for services. A problem, however, is that the various professions do not necessarily relate very well to each and, as the editors of this book say, there are histories of turf disputes between obstetricians and midwives, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists, physiotherapists and orthopaedic surgeons, nurses and social workers, and occupational therapists and social workers. Multidisciplinary practice has some of the significant challenges of a marriage or civil union, such as coping with inherent differences and with dominance. The differences across the caring professions typically include the client population and their contexts, the nature of the assessments and interventions that are used, the professional language that is spoken, the amount of time spent with clients and the types of relationship that are established with them, the place of technology in what is done, and how risk, accountability, and liability are determined. The power differences among the caring professions are vested in hierarchical positions and in the authority of the knowledge that is used.