Strengthening Interprofessional Team Collaboration: Potential Roles for School Mental Health Professionals

Abstract

Interprofessional team collaboration is an important component of school mental health, but authentic collaboration is often difficult to achieve in practice and there is little research available to inform strategies for strengthening collaboration. Using a sample of 428 members of interprofessional teams in school mental health, this study found that teams may not prioritize the nurturing of team processes by reflecting on what is (and what is not) working. The findings suggest that physical space, time to collaborate, positive relationships between collaborators, and previous affirming experiences of collaboration influence the functioning of interprofessional teams in schools.

Keywords:

• COLLABORATION
• SCHOOL MENTAL HEALTH
• INTERPROFESSIONAL TEAMS
• SCHOOL-COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS