This is a reflective essay based on my attendance at a multidisciplinary team (MDT) meeting whilst on my two-week placement at a local mental health day hospital. The aim of this essay is to discuss the importance of the multidisciplinary team within the mental health environment and discuss factors that can influence the success or failure of multidisciplinary teams.
Mental health teams generally comprise of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, nurses, occupational therapists and social workers, but other therapists such as family therapists, psychotherapists and counsellors might also become involved in the care of the patient (Perkins & Repper 1998).
Multidiscipline involvement is important within mental health nursing as people with mental health problems have multiple needs, so a variety of expertise is required to meet the needs of these people (Darby et al 1999).
Multidisciplinary mental health teams can been defined as:
"A group of practitioners with different professional training, employed by more than one agency, who meet regularly to coordinate their work providing services to one or more clients in a defined area" (Ovretveit,1993: 9 cited in Onyett 2003)
The advantage of a multidisciplinary team approach is that all professionals work together by collecting the facts and by bringing information together, to obtain as complete a view as possible of the problems of each individual patient. …
