Motherhood, Apple Pie and Interprofessional Working

Abstract

This article seeks to challenge the uncritical and often benign way in which interprofessional practice is considered within social work and other social professions. In particular the article highlights issues concerning definitions, structural solutions, interprofessional education, the assumption of consensus, the lost voice of the service user, the potential for unnecessary surveillance and some ideas of what distinctly good interprofessional working might look like. This article is not an attack on interprofessional practice per se but an attempt to go beyond the ‘motherhood and apple pie’ nature of much of the current debate.

Keywords:

• Interprofessional Practice
• Collaboration
• Multi-disciplinary Working
• Multi-professional Working
• Critical Practice