Time used on interprofessional collaboration in child mental health care

Abstract

This study investigates a sample of professionals (N = 134) who work with children with mental health problems, in the western part of Norway. A 48-item questionnaire was designed to measure different aspects of interprofessional collaboration. Two demographic questions in the questionnaire focused on how much time professionals use on interprofessional collaboration on a regular working-day and results from these two questions are reported. How much time do professionals use on interprofessional collaboration within the context of helping children with mental health problems? Do professionals collaborate more within their own organization than with professionals from external organizations? The results show that professionals, on average, use about 40% of their time on collaboration activities. Professionals, as expected, collaborate more with professionals from their own organization than with professionals from other health care services.

Keywords:

• Interprofessional collaboration
• child and adolescent mental health care