The Mental Health Treatment Team as a Work Group: Team Dynamics and the Role of the Leader

Abstract

Although treatment teams have been examined often in the mental health literature, this literature seldom addresses the crucial property of "teamness"--the key set of intangible phenomena that allow a team to function synergistically as more than the sum of its parts, and with a sense of team identity. In this paper, the concept of the work group is used to develop a framework for understanding the factors contributing to effective team functioning and identity, an their implications for the tasks of team leadership and sociotherapy: "the art of maintaining a social system in which the treatment of an individual patient can best occur" (Edelson 1970). Leadership activities that promote team cohesiveness and boundary maintenance are discussed, and suggestions are provided for ways in which the subjective experiences and emotional reactions of the leader and team members can be used to promote improved task performance and clinical care.

Facing SARS: psychological impacts on SARS team nurses and psychiatric services in a Taiwan general hospital

“…This study showed that the leader of the SARS team played an important role in coordinating services [5]. Being in the leader's position, she had to bridge the gap between the hospital command center and the nurses.…”

Mental health treatment teams and leadership: A systems model

“…Charismatic authority is based upon the personal characteristics of a n individual, and is related to the psychological mechanisms t h a t foster group cohesiveness (Tourquet, 1974;Wong, 1981;Yank et al, 1992a).…”

“…organizations (Yank et al 1992a). Their REATMENT TEAMS ARE work groups effective hnctioning is key to their parent that perform key productive tasks organizations' successful operation; yet within mental health care such teams are susceptible t o various forms of dysfunction.…”

“…Events, forces, stresses, and strains that affect one team member affect the team-as-a-whole. T h e subjective psychological experience of actively maintained and functionally effective wholeness (the sense of "pulling together"), is vital to team morale and productivity, and will be discussed, below, as cohesiveness (reviewed in: Yank et al, 1992a).…”

Enhancing Treatment Team Process Through Mindfulness-Based Mentoring in an Inpatient Psychiatric Hospital

“…(Lichtenstein, Alexander, Jinnett, & Ullman, 1997, p. 415) However, it is increasingly apparent that when diverse professionals are brought together to work as a treatment team, they are ineffective and, according to Yank, Barber, Hargrove, and Whitt (1992), lack a sense of "teamness." This is due, in part, to the team members' confusion of their roles, competition for authority and value, conflict or uncertainty about team tasks, ambiguity about team philosophy and model of care, and divided loyalties between their discipline and their team (Øvretveit, 1996;Whyte & Brooker, 2001;Yank, Barber, & Spradlin, 1994).…”