Community mental health teams: determinants of effectiveness

Community mental health teams have their Irish origins both in the deinstitutionalisation policy of the 1984 “Planning for the Future” framework1 and the challenge of intervention and recovery strategies for acute episodic and enduring mental illness. In 1994, Corrigan et al.2 observed that rehabilitation produces a set of barriers that are best overcome by multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs). The multidisciplinary approach was again emphasised in the Government’s 2006 policy document, ‘A Vision for Change’3 and the Mental Health Commission’s 2005 study on quality in mental health care4. The reality of the performance of such an approach, however, has not met stakeholder expectations, according to the Commission’s discussion document on MDTs5. It states, that despite user access to such teams during the past 20 years, only a small number of well functioning MDTs are operating in the Adult Mental Health Services.