Resource Center

The interprofessional team has indeed become almost a standard feature in the delivery of professional services. A logical rationale has been advanced for reliance on interprofessional teamwork; the arguments usually stress the inevitable interdependence among professionals concerned with human services in an increasingly complex society. With more sophisticated understanding of human behavior available to the professions, all professional groups are advocating interprofessional teamwork and improved interprofessional communication in the interests of the clients or consumers of service.
Interprofessional teams are ubiquitous and there is a wide range of social work involvement in team practice. Seemingly the team is an accompaniment to the increased specialization of our age. The entrenched nature of the modality might lead one to believe that team delivery of services is well-formulated and tested. Yet the contrary seems to be true. Teams are established with few guidelines other than an effort to assemble representatives of the requisite professions. Professionals of different disciplines are then expected to collaborate in delivering effective service although they may have had no training or practice in the art and skill of team membership in their respective professional schools.
Perhaps the interprofessional team formula is an inadequate concept for guiding action. The metaphor of a "team" masks the range and complexity possible in interdisciplinary interaction and cooperation. It avoids elaboration of the elements of effective teamwork. Although no generally accepted framework or typology of teamwork has been developed, it is clear that many kinds of teams exist in practice, varying along dimensions such as purpose, composition, leadership patterns, intensity of interaction, duration of effort, and decision-making participation of members. The team is a complicated structure involving many interrelated variables, and little is known about the conditions under which the team functions effectively.