Community mental health teams: A developing culture

Abstract

Scientific research in relation to multi-disciplinary community mental health teams is in its infancy. From the points of view of social context and expressed need at least, older approaches to mental health care now seem inadequate. The notion of multi-disciplinary community mental health teams has found wide appeal, and after ten years they are still in a state of active development. Basic functions and priorities are being refined. Multi-disciplinary teamwork can be achieved, but not without time and hard work. One key is the management of different forms of supervision. These issues raise some fundamental questions for the future training of mental health professionals, and the appropriateness of established disciplines for the tasks now required has to be examined. Some teams seem to be working well, and it may now be possible for some better quality research to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of existing models.