Blog
What exactly IS a multi-professional team? (and why is it so important for my Autistic child?)
- October 1, 2024
- Posted by: AP-Admin
- Category: blog
“The ability for interdisciplinary teams to be effective often depends on the willingness of various disciplines to learn from one another and to focus on the family as being the primary “expert” on their individual child’s behavior” (LeMay et al, 2019 P.4)
Multi professional teams are identified as “gold standard” for working practices in health and social care but you might see them labelled as “multi-agency”, “multi-disciplinary”, or even “inter-disciplinary”. What do these labels mean and why are they so important?.
I’ve always been a strong advocate for a team. More heads are better than one when it comes to being solution focussed. They encourage discussion and accountability for decisions. Just setting out my stall here early. I’m a fan.
The term “multi” means that there are many, where “inter” suggests there is a more integrated approach between those involved. However my issue comes with the terms “disciplinary”, “professional” or “agency”. These terms are certainly rooted in the medical model (more about that here – link to another blog post) and imply that only those who are qualified will qualify to be in the team! What about the person, their parents and also their siblings? Moss et al (2019) agreed that they all need to be included to make up the team.
Labels often establish an entity. In labelling the “team” we’re making it a thing. And in my opinion, it needs to be a thing. Ultimately the team exists to work towards a shared goal, utilising individual knowledge and skills to meet clearly defined goals and agreed outcomes.
The SEND review (2022) does mention the “specialist end of the spectrum” but it doesn’t actually specify who those specialists are. Sometimes even within a professional team – the individuals don’t know what other professionals can do and the full scope of their clinical skills. Interesting. If we don’t know what everyone does and how they can help, how are you as parents supposed to know?
There is definitely a lack of research to prove how effective these multi professional teams can be (Anning, 2010; Pollard et al, 2005) maybe because in part they’re so hard to compare. I enjoyed reading Barret and Keeping (2005) who suggested that research needs to include teams who know each other. However despite this lack of empirical research there are some ideas about how to create a good team around a child.
- Involve the most important people; the child, their parents and their siblings
- Make sure everyone is clear about roles and what each professional can offer
- Through education and joined up working, team members can identify gaps in knowledge within the team
- An equal power dynamic needs to be created, within which voices can be heard equally.
- Shared goals clearly communicated will build trust and progress
- Regular meetings with clear notes ensure progress is monitored and actions held accountable
Seeing the value in the team is ultimately what will make it effective. There is SO much knowledge out there, in so many specialist areas. In my experience, professionals working together create a net that overlaps between their knowledge base and which then builds a strategy that is as individual as the child and family we’re working with.