New Roles for Old: The Role of The Psychiatrist in The Interdisciplinary Team

Abstract

Objectives:The contributions of the psychiatrist to the interdisciplinary team are described, along with the opportunities for, and barriers to, effective teamwork. Conclusions:Australasian health and medical training systems still provide perverse incentives deterring psychiatrists from becoming full members of interdisciplinary teams. Sources of potential role conflict should be resolved, and advantages of teamwork support, division of labour, crossfertilisation and hybrid vigour should be realised. Truly essential and desirable roles for psychiatrists in interdisciplinary teams could be developed and strengthened by further training.

A Comparison of the Nursing Practice Environment in Mental Health and Medical‐Surgical Settings

“…In particular, this group reported collegial nurse‐doctor relationships at a higher level (3.13) than reported for magnet hospitals in the United States (Lake, 2002; Lake & Friese, 2006), and higher than other Australian general nursing research (Middleton et al, 2008). This is indicative of strong interdisciplinary relationships and may be a consequence of the nature of work in mental health settings, described as inherently multidisciplinary (Grigg, 2001; Rosen, 2001).…”

Influence of the DSM‐IV Outline for Cultural Formulation on multidisciplinary case conferences in mental health

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“…a dominant professional culture overwhelming a recovery-based approach)? 80 Do such safeguards also promote a positive experience for both service users and care-givers 95 and their participation in decision-making, both at management and clinical levels? 96…”

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