Doing team work : talk between professionals in community mental health teams

• Main Author: Griffiths, L. J.
• Published: Swansea University 1999
• Subjects: 361
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.637172

This is a study of two community mental health teams based in Wales. The research was carried out during 1992. It focuses on the regular meetings of the two teams and analysis of transcripts of tape recordings of the meetings. The research may be seen as: (i) a case study in policy implementation and some of the features of multi-disciplinary teamwork which affect the translation of policy into action; (ii) an examination of the nature of teamwork at the interface of health and social services; (iii) a micro-sociological analysis of the production and display of occupational identities in a welfare bureaucracy. Non-participant observation of team meetings and analysis of the transcripts were supplemented by interviews with team members and other significant actors in the delivery of the community mental health services. The division of labour within the teams and the inter-professional relationships between team members were as key organisational events which provide an arena where re-constituting, or resisting, professional dominance in a changed service environment takes place. The study shows how basic decisions about the format of meetings can produce both intended and unintended consequences for the nature of the work teams do, including patient selection and categorisation.