In Quest of an Interdisciplinary Helping Process Framework for Collaborative Practice in Systems of Care

SUMMARY

The “‘Heart and Soul of Change’: Therapies for a New Century” interdisciplinary symposium developed from a personal dream. The dream grew out of a collaborative, community-wide “system of care” project which helped children with serious emotional disturbances and their families receive comprehensive services. To support the community's system of care project, East Carolina University assembled a team of faculty from a cross-section of professional “helping” disciplines. A core faculty group accepted the responsibility of developing a curriculum and teaching an interdisciplinary, collaborative practice course. They soon realized that professional literature lacked conceptual frameworks that could guide professionals from various disciplines who practice in “systems of care” or use “wraparound” techniques. In such settings, professionals are expected to collaborate together and be “partners with families.” As a result, they decided to bring together Dr. Scott D. Miller and Dr. James K. Whittaker to lead a symposium to help build a unifying framework for collaborative, interdisciplinary practice. Using a personal format, this essay tells how the symposium developed, and it gives a brief overview of its presentations. Finally it concludes with several post-symposium questions addressed to Dr. Miller and Dr. Whittaker that help further develop a framework for interdisciplinary, collaborative practice. This information will be of use to serve providers as they attempt to develop a framework for their work. Further, it is expected that the questions addressed in this essay are questions that all service providers need to consider as they work collaboratively with children and families.

KEYWORDS:

• Helping process
• collaborative practice
• therapy
• elements of therapy
• person/environment practice
• system of care
• children with serious emotional disturbances