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Interprofessional and Interdisciplinary Practice

Human services organizations are being entreated to create sustainable impact and changes in the lives of individuals and families accessing social services. With the growing diversity in the U.S. population and complexity of social issues experienced by individuals and families, comprehensive approaches for addressing these challenges often necessitates interprofessional collaboration and practice. Interprofessional practices not only improve quality of services delivered but also enhance the work lives of practitioners. The importance of interprofessional practice has led to the development of interprofessional competencies by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel and the Center for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE). Several disciplines—for example, nursing, education, and gerontology—are at the cutting edge of implementing interprofessional educational models where students from different professional programs learn with and from each other. The purpose of this entry is to define and postulate rationale for growth of interprofessional practice, illuminate the skills needed for interprofessional practice, provide illustrations of interprofessional practice, and elucidate interprofessional education.

Interprofessional care and practice entails that two or more individuals from different professions integrate their respective assessments, perspectives, and interventions for understanding and solving problems whose solutions are beyond the scope of a single field. Such an integrated approach greatly enhances the quality of services delivered to service beneficiaries.

Rationale and Skills

Complex and dynamic challenges experienced by individuals accessing human services cross social, economic, physical, spiritual, and emotional health boundaries; these challenges are further compounded by the growing diversity of the U.S. population. Providing a comprehensive, culturally proficient, seamless system of services necessitates invoking the expertise of several professionals. Often, solving complex problems transcends the knowledge and skills of any one profession (e.g., teachers, human services professionals, nurses, physical therapists, etc.). Moreover, shrinking public funding, devolution of social services to state and local levels, and demands of managed care are compelling an integrated approach to delivering human services in a more cost-effective fashion.

Human services professionals exchange information and coordinate the services—with other professionals—they deliver to ensure an integrated approach to clients’ challenges. Interprofessionality is a process in which professionals develop integrated ways of practicing and providing cohesive responses to clients’ needs and problems. For practicing in an interprofessional fashion, human services professionals require excellent communication and group process skills to maintain continuous interactions with participating professionals, sharing knowledge, negotiating, resolving conflicts, and participating in teamwork. For interprofessionality to succeed, collaborative practice skills, openness to alter one's perspectives while interacting with other professionals, and the ability to implement discipline-specific interventions are vital. Knowledge of the community and context, ability to work across different systems, and cultural proficiency are also essential to interprofessionality.

Interprofessional Practice

Practitioners in mental health, education, health care, child welfare, domestic violence, and several other fields that require the expertise of various professionals and disciplines are currently delivering interprofessional care. Comprehensive interprofessional understanding of issues occurs when practitioners are able to view situations from the perspectives of each participating profession. For example, in community-based mental health organizations, mental health practitioners interface with professionals from several different fields—often from several different organizations—to provide comprehensive and seamless service delivery. Often, these clients experience several social and economic challenges as well. Collaboratively with psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, social workers, client advocates, and family members, mental health practitioners are assessing clients and developing integrated care plans.

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