Preparing mental health practitioners for multidisciplinary mental health placements: a distributed leadership approach to cross-disciplinary education and training

Abstract

This ALTC funded project is an initiative in cross-disciplinary leadership capacity building which investigates and facilitates structural, distributed and cross-disciplinary leadership for the purpose of preparing students for an initial placement in a multidisciplinary mental health setting. We have investigated the extent to which cross-disciplinary education and training occurs between mental health disciplines in Australian universities. We have also examined the barriers and challenges that universities face when attempting to facilitate cross-disciplinary learning activities. Those barriers include: insufficient support and resources from universities for cross-disciplinary education; insufficient support from schools of psychology, nursing, social work, occupational therapy, and medicine for cross-disciplinary education; emphasis from professional accreditation bodies on disciplinary integrity and the resultant potential for curriculum overcrowding; and the absence of guidelines, clear philosophical underpinnings, and suitable curriculum approaches and materials to support cross-disciplinary education.