Requirements for multidisciplinary teamwork in psychiatric rehabilitation

Psychiatric rehabilitation by its very nature is multidisciplinary because of the many competencies required for its implementation. In promoting opti mal levels of recovery from schizophrenia and other disabling mental disord ers, teams must combine the expert contributions of professionals and parap rofessionals who can individualize a comprehensive array of evidence-based services with competency, consistency, continuity, coordination, collaborat ion, and fidelity. The authors describe the properties and functions of the multidisciplinary team and key attributes of effective teams. The importan ce of teams' involving clients, their relatives, and other supporters in se tting personally relevant life goals is emphasized. The authors provide exa mples of the challenges posed by the need to individualize services and of the ways in which barriers to communication and coordination can be overcom e. The roles of the various team members are described, including leadershi p roles and the unique role of the psychiatrist, in the context of newly em erging, evidence-based treatments for psychiatric rehabilitation.