Interdisciplinary treatment and training issues in the acute inpatient psychiatry unit

Abstract

While interdisciplinary team treatment processes are well elaborated in geriatric treatment settings and literature, there has been less elaboration of the interdisciplinary model in other clinical areas. This paper describes the independent evolution of an analogous interdisciplinary team model in an acute, tertiary care inpatient psychiatric unit in a Veterans Affairs hospital in the USA. The practices, benefits and drawbacks of the model in a psychiatric setting are similar to those described in the gerontological literature.

Key Words:

• Interdisciplinary
• team
• inpatient
• psychiatry