This essay will reflect on my attendance at my first multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting whilst on my 10 week placement at the department of mental health for older people in Hereford. The aim of this reflection is to discuss the importance of the MDT within the mental health community- and discuss factors that can influence the success or failure of MDTs.
Katzenbach’s (1993) definition of a team: a team is a number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable (this definition comes from Katzenbach 20 years ago- but I still believe it is as relevant today- especially in regards to a multidisciplinary mental health team.
Community mental health teams generally comprise of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists (although DMHOP don’t have a psychologist employed at present), mental health nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, support workers- other therapists and professionals such as family therapists, psychotherapists, counsellors might also become involved in the care of the patient (Perkins and Repper 1998).
Multidiscipline involvement is important within mental health nursing as people with mental health problems have multiple and complex needs, so a variety of expertise is required to meet the needs of these people (Darby et al 1999). Multidisciplinary mental health teams can be defined as: ‘A group of practitioners with different professional