The Social Worker as Part of an Interdisciplinary Team

VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1
FEBRUARY 2003
Adolescent Health
PRACTICEUPDATE
THE SOCIAL WORKER AS PART OF AN
INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM
Partners in Program
Planning for
Adolescent Health
(PIPPAH):
POSITIVE EFFECTS OF
COLLABORATION ON
ADOLESCENT HEALTH
a cooperative agreement
with the Office of
Adolescent Health at the
Maternal and Child Health
Bureau that promotes an
adolescent health agenda
among professional
disciplines of large national
membership organizations.
Social work has an extensive background in
collaborating with other disciplines.
Consultation with other disciplines has
provided social workers with a diversified
outlook on health care treatment and has
proven to be especially effective when working
with adolescents.
MEMBER
ORGANIZATIONS
• American Academy of
Pediatric Dentistry
• American Bar Association
• American College of
Preventive Medicine
• American Dietetic
Association
• American Medical
Association
• American Nurses
Association
• American School Health
Association
• National Association of
Social Workers
Laurie Emmer, LICSW
Senior Staff Associate
Adolescent Health
lemmer@naswdc.org
COLLABORATION ACROSS
SETTINGS
The interdisciplinary team working with
adolescents can now be found in multiple
settings. Consider the following:
•
Interdisciplinary care is an integrative
approach between groups of professionals
including the patient and family. It is becoming
more common in acute care hospital settings,
mental health clinics and public health clinics
as professional understand that patient care is
not a single profession’s responsibility but a
conjoint one. A social worker can work as a
direct member of a team, or as a consultant
who can provide a psychosocial perspective
that is otherwise missing (University of
Chicago Health Services, 1997).
•
A collaborative team can provide important
benefits to adolescents. During adolescence,
peer pressure is intense and the need to be
accepted can be profound. Adolescents often
feel good health is not a priority. For example,
in a survey of students in a West Virginia
school, 8.8 percent had no vigorous or
moderate physical activity over a week’s period
of time. (National Center for Chronic Disease
Prevention and Health Promotion, [CDC],
1999) Collaboration can help these students
access services through improved
communication and age appropriate message
delivery.
•
•
•
School based clinics working with multidisciplinary teams can alleviate medical
ailments while simultaneously providing,
mental health services, pregnancy
prevention and other related health
services (Di Blasio, 1998).
Families in inpatient psychiatric settings
are participating as part of a treatment
team consisting of a psychiatrist, social
worker, psychologist, nurse, educational
specialist and therapist (Powell, 2001).
Collaboration is fast becoming more
prevalent in medical settings, where
doctors, nurses, social workers, dieticians
and other health care professionals work
as a team to confront a diversity of
concerns including teen pregnancy,
gynecological issues, mental health and
prevention methods.
Collaborative efforts use different models,
such as direct involvement including
providing treatment and clinical services,
or with consultants who provide
information and recommendations, but do
not participate in resolutions (University of
Chicago Health Services, 1997).
Collaboration also occurs at the
administrative level, which may include
middle management and other agencies. At
this level, collaboration takes a
considerable amount of involvement and
relationship building with outside agencies,
service delivery, mental health providers
and systems of care (Center for Mental
Health Services, 1998).
750 First Street NE • Suite 700 Washington, D.C. 20002-4241
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Adolescent Health
PRACTICEUPDATE
EFFECTS OF COLLABORATION ON
ADOLESCENT HEALTH
IMPLICATIONS FOR SOCIAL WORK
PRACTICE
Interdisciplinary collaboration has had an overwhelmingly
positive effect on adolescent health. Patients have reported
improved communication and professionals agree that a
more dynamic view has been present, with an improvement
in treatment and patient satisfaction (University of
Colorado Health Services, 1997).
Collaborative efforts among disciplines have proven to
have positive effects on adolescent health and have had an
overall positive affect on social work. It is important that
social workers take active roles in building and supporting
collaborative teams as they can play key roles in assisting
with the overall communication process across disciplines.
To improve adolescent health outcomes, social workers
should:
The Boston Happens program that provides a network of
care for homeless at -risk and HIV positive youth, found
that network of care, including collaborative efforts among
providers, has connected a higher number of youths to
services. Teenagers were linked with much needed services,
and afforded the appropriate medication and treatment
(Woods, Samples, Melchiono, Keana, Fox, Chase, Tierney,
Price, Paradise, O’Brien, Mansfield, Brock, Allen, &
Goodman, 1998).
Diabetes programs around the country benefited from
the use of an interdisciplinary team. Children with
insulin dependent diabetes mellitus worked with an
interdisciplinary team that included a nurse, pharmacist,
dietician, optometrist, doctor, rehab counselor and social
worker. Children with diabetes are more susceptible to eye
disease and coordinated teams helped monitor diabetes and
the affect it had on retinal change, as well as other related
concerns including: exercise, diet, glucose tests, calories,
eating and the emotional well-being of families with
diabetic children (Fair, 1993).
Residential treatment programs for sexually abused
teenagers found that collaboration amongst disciplines
helped the consistency in treatment and authenticity of
work (ATSA, 2001). When agencies have collaborated at
both the agency and management levels, there has been a
marked improvement in relationships between agencies,
more comprehensive services have been provided and the
collaborations have proved to be more cost effective
(CMHS, 1998).
2
•
•
•
•
Become more knowledgeable about other disciplines
and how they relate to adolescent health and educate
other disciplines about social work practice.
Take an active role in becoming more familiar with
resources in the community that relate to adolescent
health. Social workers may also become familiar with
interagency/discipline committees in the community
and network (CAH, 2001).
Involve families in their interdisciplinary efforts by
establishing trust and building therapeutic relationships
and,
Prioritize others involvement in collaborative efforts;
scheduling meetings with disciplines, outside of
treatment planning will assist with this effort
(Williams, 1998).
REFERENCES
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (1999). Youth
risk behavior surveillance system [Online]. Available:
apps.nccd.cdc.gov/YRBSS/GraphV.asp?
Site=WV&Cat=6&Qnum=511&Year=19997By Var=Q2.
Center for Mental Health Services (1998). Volume VI:
Building collaboration in systems of care: child,
adolescent and family [Online]. Available:
www.mentalhealth.org/cmhs/ChildrensCampaign/1988ex
ecsum6.asp
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SOCIAL WORKERS
Adolescent Health
PRACTICEUPDATE
DiBlasio, F., (1988). School-based clinics. Health and Social
Work, 13 (4), 303-307.
Fair, R. (1993). The interdisciplinary care of children with
insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. Child and
Adolescent Social Work Journal, 10, 441-453.
Powell., J. Privette, A., Miller, S., Whittaker, J., (2001). In
quest of an interdisciplinary helping process framework
for collaborative practice in systems of care. Journal of
Family Social Work, 5 (3), 25-34.
Prescott, D. (2001). Building collaboration in adolescent
residential treatment: A response to research trends and
needs for youth [Online]. Available: www.ata.com.
Nanchoff-Glatt, M. (2002) Collaborative health care: A
personal perspective [Online]. Available:
www.cfpc.ca/education/sot/sotarchived.asp.
Miller, M. (1997) Introduction to interdisciplinary health
care [Online]. Available:
www.uchsc.edu/ahec/finaid/manual/mod.
Williams, Barbara E. (1998). Parents and patients: Members
of an interdisciplinary team on an adolescent inpatient
unit. Clinical Social Work Journal 16 (1) 78-91.
Woods, E., Samples, C., Melchiono, M., Keenan, P., Fox D.,
Chase, L., Tierney, S., Price, V., Paradise, J., O’Brien, R.,
Mansfield, C., Brock, R., Allen, D.,Goodman, E.,
(1998). Boston HAPPENS program: a model of health
care for HIV positive, homeless and at-risk youth.
Journal of Adolescent Health, (23S) 37-48.
World Health Organization (2001). Consensus statements
emanating from the global consultation on adolescent
friendly health services [Online]. Available:
www.who.int/en/