A transitional event as process facilitator in psychiatric staff groups

Abstract

Psychiatric teamwork imposes on team members a number of interpersonal stresses arising from differing professional orientations and personal needs. Industrial staff development programs have used small-group techniques to reduce interstaff tension, and some similar work has been done with interdisciplinary health teams. Transition theory offers a new perspective for studying processes operating within the development of team cohesion. This study of three multi-disciplinary psychiatric staff groups found that the progressive elucidation and incorporation of staff interpersonal feelings into ongoing clinic activities followed a typical three-phase pattern characterised by denial, acknowledgement, and implementation. Analysis into sub-phases revealed a common transitional event centering on feelings toward a distanced professional colleague (transitional object) coinciding with the move from a reactive to a proactive mode. It is suggested that judicious introduction of such an event as a transitional rite may hasten the total process.