A Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration

1 Bronstein / A Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration297 CCC Code: 0037-8046/03 $ 2003 National Association of Social Workers, Model for Interdisciplinary CollaborationLaura R. BronsteinSocial workers have worked with colleagues from other disciplines since theearly days of the profession; yet, they were without clear models to guide thisinterdisciplinary work. The author uses multidisciplinary theoreticalliterature and conceptual and research pieces from social work literature tosupport the development of such a Model . First, current trends relevant tointerdisciplinary practice are noted to emphasize its importance.

2 The articledescribes a two-part Model . Part one of the Model consists of fivecomponents that constitute Interdisciplinary Collaboration between socialworkers and other professionals: interdependence, newly createdprofessional activities, flexibility, collective ownership of goals, and reflectionon process. Part two of the Model consists of four influences oncollaboration: professional role, structural characteristics, personalcharacteristics and a history of Collaboration . Implications for social workpractice are words: Collaboration ; host settings; Interdisciplinary teams; interprofessional Collaboration ; Model developmentSocial workers practice in schools, hospitals,psychiatric clinics, juvenile courts, prisons,police departments, and a range of other set-tings (Abramson & Rosenthal, 1995; Gibelman,1995).

3 Current practice demands collaborationbetween social workers and the professionals whodominate these agencies. For effective collabora-tion, it is critical to know what constitutes andinfluences in Social Work Practice Relevant toInterdisciplinary CollaborationTrends in social problems and professional prac-tice make it virtually impossible to serve clientseffectively without collaborating with profession-als from various disciplines. Teachers are less ableto educate students when larger numbers of themcome to school hungry, abused, and unable tospeak English.

4 Physicians and nurses are less ableto meet the demands of managed care withoutassistance from social workers, occupational andphysical therapists, and others to support patientsin the least expensive setting. These problems arecompounded by the limitations of some disci-plines, limited understanding of the roles and ex-pertise of other professionals, increased require-ments for accountability and documentation, andcomplex diagnoses and treatment with Children and Families: Collaboration in SchoolsTrends in public education require more collabo-ration between educators and social workers toeducate the children of today.

5 Many experts citechanging demographics as prompting a nationalconcern with education (Brown & Chavkin, 1994;Hare, 1994; Pallas, Natriello, & McDill, 1989;Schorr & Both, 1991). Pallas and colleagues iden-tified five key indicators associated with poorschool performance: minority racial or ethnicgroup identity, living in poverty, living in a single-parent family, having a poorly educated mother,Downloaded from by guest on 19 November 2018298 Social Work / Volume 48, Number 3 / July 2003and having a non-English language one in four children fit the first four ofthe five indicators of poor school performance adecade ago, projected figures estimate that ourschools will serve million more children inpoverty in 2020 than they served in 1984, 13 per-cent fewer white non-Hispanic children.

6 Triple thenumber of Hispanic children, and 22 percentmore black children, with similar upward trendsin single-parent families, poorly educated moth-ers, and children with non-English language back-ground (Pallas et al.). These statistics indicate thatschools will face more challenges and that thesechallenges will require expertise beyond teach-ing. In other words, there will be a greater needfor Collaboration between school social workersand teachers. A clearer understanding of what this Collaboration looks like is a first step in maxi-mizing its workers have been active in the school-linked services movement to link health and socialservices with, and most often within, schools(Dryfoos, 1994; Hare, 1994; Hare, 1995;Pennekamp, 1992).

7 The goal of school-linked ser-vices is to develop an integrated system of servicesfor children and families that is characterized bycollaboration. Berrick and Duerr (1996) outlinedoptimal conditions for school-linked services un-der which teachers and social workers work to-gether to customize service plans to increase at-tendance, enhance academic performance, anddevelop creative ideas for managing children sclassroom behavior. Supporters of school-linkedservices hope to achieve overall systems change(Gardner, 1989). They hope that more collabora-tion between teachers and school social workerscan better address needs of students, families,schools, and communities.

8 As Allen-Meares(1996) said, our schools often encourage profes-sional turfism and an undermining of a coor-dinated approach to equal educational opportu-nity and the development of our human need to reform the links between systems isurgent (p. 538). Collaboration among individualprofessionals is a first step in developing collabo-rative relationships among community constitu-ents, agencies, and professional Collaboration inHealth CareWorkers in health settings have always been ex-pected to collaborate. Direct social work practicein healthcare was established in 1905, when socialservices were introduced at Massachusetts GeneralHospital (Cabot, 1915).

9 Today, hospital socialworkers see increasing numbers of immigrants,people in poverty, and patients with limited or noinsurance. Schilling and Schilling (1987) arguedthat this changing population has prompted amove from health care s entrepreneurial emphasisto a focus on clinics and treatment of specialpopulations. Yet, managed care policies increas-ingly dictate the provision of care, and hospitalstays become shorter and rarer. This requires so-cial workers in medical settings to work closelywith physicians, nurses, and other medical profes-sionals to ensure that patients and family mem-bers have the understanding and tools to maintaingains made in the hospital or regimens prescribedin the doctor s office when they return home(Abramson & Mizrahi, 1996; Carroll, 1980;Cowles & Lefcowitz, 1992; Netting & Williams,1998; Poole, 1995).

10 Netting and Williams arguedthat across the professions over the last decade,psychosocial aspects of health care have beenviewed as increasingly critical in intervening withpatients and their families (p. 196).Social Work Practice in Mental HealthLike medical social work, social work practice inmental health settings began around the turn ofthe century when Elizabeth Horton was appointedas the first psychiatric social worker to the NewYork City Hospital System in 1907 (Rossi, 1969).At that time, social work and psychiatry wereviewed as having a close collaborative relationship(Deutsch, 1940).