Community mental health team working as a socially valued enterprise

Abstract

Effective relationships between users and staff are the cornerstone of effective intensive community provision for people who are unlikely to be served by more traditional forms of provision. If the rhetoric and practice of community care means that they see CMHT involvement as socially devaluing then the aim of effective engagement is likely to be undermined. It will also devalue the meaning that staff attach to their work, with negative consequences for staff morale. Developing effective relationships means designing teams that are focused on people with complex health and social care needs, and the outcomes that users themselves value. This requires an explicit ideology of care. Teams that are not fragmented in terms of staff time or management, where staff celebrate their differences rather than aim for consensus or 'democracy' and where issues of the exercise of power and hierarchy are honestly discussed, are most likely to be successful.