Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Introduction
- one Mental health needs and mothering
- two The service context
- three Interprofessional work
- four The research study
- five Identifying key research issues
- six Mothers’ perspectives
- seven The mothers’ evaluations of professional support
- eight The professionals and their practice
- nine Conceptualising needs and evaluating risk
- ten Interprofessional communication and coordination
- eleven Identifying appropriate resources
- twelve Conclusion
- References
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
three - Interprofessional work
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of tables and figures
- Introduction
- one Mental health needs and mothering
- two The service context
- three Interprofessional work
- four The research study
- five Identifying key research issues
- six Mothers’ perspectives
- seven The mothers’ evaluations of professional support
- eight The professionals and their practice
- nine Conceptualising needs and evaluating risk
- ten Interprofessional communication and coordination
- eleven Identifying appropriate resources
- twelve Conclusion
- References
- Index
- Also available from The Policy Press
Summary
Before examining the evidence for the extent to which services succeed in working together, it is useful to consider why interprofessional coordination is generally considered a goal worth pursuing. As Corby (2002) has pointed out, communication and coordination can be costly and the outcomes for service users have not been formally evaluated. The benefits need to be enumerated. One clear advantage of interprofessional communication is that the information base for a particular client or family is broadened across the dimensions of activity, knowledge and time. So, by obtaining information from a health visitor about a child's early development, a child care social worker can gain access to information that is both historical and covers areas of expertise, such as child health and physical development, which are outside a social worker's immediate range of tasks and competence. Data on different family members will be held by different agencies; for example, information relating to a new partner's history of mental health problems may only be accessed by a child care social worker through contact with mental health services. Coordination and communication between professionals will also allow families to be monitored more effectively. Should the health visitor share her weekly observations of the child with the social worker who is also visiting once a week, a fuller picture covering a wider range of circumstances and situations can be constructed.
The need for information that is reliable and comprehensive (Sheppard, 1990) becomes particularly acute when risks are perceived to be significant. Guidelines on professional codes of confidentiality recognise this and allow for information to be disclosed to relevant agencies without clients’ consent when risks are assessed as high. However, judging whether or not the risks are high enough to warrant breaching professional codes of confidentiality may vary according to individual assessments of the level of risk, the value attached to confidentiality and users’ rights by different professional groups, and the client orientation of the practitioner making the decision.
Even when information is available, professionals may experience difficulties in collating, sifting and interpreting it (Sheppard, 1990; Waterhouse and Carnie, 1992; Farmer and Owen, 1995). These tasks, and the decision making which ensues, are likely to involve the assessment of risk, and much of the process is undertaken in multi-professional forums such as child protection case conferences, ward rounds or Care Programme Approach (CPA) reviews.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Child Protection and Mental Health ServicesInterprofessional Responses to the Needs of Mothers, pp. 31 - 40Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2003