A Self-Assessment Program for Multidisciplinary Mental Health Teams

OBJECTIVE: The authors describe a self-assessment training program for multidisciplinary mental health teams that was developed in a public multihospital system, the process of implementing the training at a state psychiatric hospital, and a measurement instrument, the Scale for Leadership Assessment and Team Evaluation (SLATE), which they have used for self-assessment of multidisciplinary teams and which is currently being studied. They assessed whether changes in team self-assessments could be seen after the training program. METHODS: A total of 102 mental health professionals from 12 inpatient units representing the disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, nursing, social work, and occupational and activity therapy completed the SLATE before and after participation in a training program that consisted primarily of team self-assessment in the context of treatment planning sessions. The training program included structured feedback, didactics, consultation, and videotaping of sessions. Aggregate data were ...