EDITORS’ NOTES

T h e principles and strategies of psychiatric rehabilitation have been clearly shown to improve the quality of life in persons with severe mental illness. Rehabilitation programs rely on interdisciplinary teams of professionals, para- professionals, and prosumers. (Prosumers are persons with severe mental ill- ness who have consumed or are currently consuming rehabilitation services and who now provide these services in some capacity) Teams that work well together provide better-quality services to their clientele. Experts in business management and organizational psychology have developed a variety of para- digms for effective teamwork. Experts in mental health and psychiatric reha- bilitation have echoed the philosophy of these paradigms in their concern for creating cohesive and effective teams. Strategies for fostering teamwork are the focus of this volume.

Several criteria distinguish interventions handled by teams from those which individual clinicians might implement. Some interventions require the team as a whole to provide coordinated services. For example, all staff members on the assertive community treatment team participate in the provision of a client’s care plan. Alternatively, the intervention may need to be subdivided among team members; for example, in a skills-training program, one staff member conducts psychoeducational modules on basic conversation skills, a second staff member teaches medication management skills, and a third teaches street smarts. Team members conducting individual modules must coordinate their efforts accord- ingly Finally, the intervention may essentially be managed by one team member but still require the input of the whole team to implement it effectively For exam- ple, family education and support may be conducted by a single member of the team, but this staff member must work closely with the team as a whole to make sure that progress in family care parallels the overall rehabilitation plan.

Experts in management and organizational psychology have defined four characteristics of generic work teams that differentiate them from other groups; psychiatric rehabilitation teams show each of these (Dyer, 1995):

The work team is characterized by face-to-face interaction. Members of the rehabilitation team accomplish work goals by interacting personally with colleagues. Members of a work team mutually influence each other. Staff on a rehabil- itation team do not carry out treatment plans dictated by the team leader. Rather, team members and the team leader develop and implement indi- vidual rehabilitation plans with the consumer as partner. Implementing the plan requires the joint effort of all. Workers on a team perceive they are members of that team. In fact, work identity is closely tied to one’s membership on a particular team. Members

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR MENTAL HEALTH SERVICE^, no 79, Fall 1YYl i Q Jossey-Bass Publishers 1

2 BUILDING TEAMS FOR EFFECTIVE PSYCHIATRIC REHABILITATION

of the rehabilitation team frequently distinguish their role from that of other treatment providers.

4. Members of a work team share common goals and tasks. Staff members on psychiatric rehabilitation teams work with their peers to carry out a vari- ety of services that constitute their program.

The volume begins with a review by Patrick Corrigan and Stanley McCracken of educational and organizational approaches to teamwork and program development. Harriet Lefley then describes the importance of edu- cating trainees about egalitarian roles in rehabilitation and integrating educa- tional versus organizational approaches to program development. Daniel Giffort, in Chapter Three, furthers the idea that staff training must use a sys- tems perspective by introducing concepts from the organizational psychology literature. The next two chapters examine specific issues from organizational psychology. Gary Sluyter, in Chapter Four, reviews total quality management and its relevance to effective rehabilitation programs. Andrew Garman and Patrick Corrigan discuss the role of effective leadership in teamwork.

The next two chapters review basic strategies for training staff who provide assertive community treatment (ACT). Judith Cook, Terri Horton-O’Connell, Genevieve Fitzgibbon, and Pamela Steigman review a recent research project on training ACT staff. In Chapter Seven, Phyllis Solomon and Jeffrey Draine sum- marize their research on the impact of prosumers on rehabilitation teams. To con- clude the volume, William Anthony discusses the importance of technology in the rehabilitation process; he reminds us that staff training programs must iden- tify the knowledge and skills required to implement psychiatric rehabilitation.

Although clinical researchers must continue to examine the impact of rehabilitation strategies, those of us who serve persons with psychiatric dis- ability face an equally important challenge-the need to come together in cohe- sive teams to develop a service responsive to our customers’ needs. This volume outlines the educational and organizational tactics to approach these goals.

Patrick W Corrigan Daniel W Giffort Editors

Reference Dyer, W. G. Team Building: Current Issues and New Alternatives. (3rd ed.) Reading, Mass.:

Addison-Wesley, 1995.

PATRICK W CORRIGAN is associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago, where he directs the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. He is also direc- tor and principal investigator of the Illinois Staff Training Institute for Psychiatric Rehabilitation.

DANIEL W GIFFORT is chief of the Bureau of Human Resource Development, Office of Mental Health, Illinois Department of Human Services, Chicago.