MDTs or pre-schoolers in a sandpit?

Too many multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) work like a group of toddlers in a pre-school.

Bear with me on this one.

I’m not suggesting they aren’t fully toilet trained or have tantrums (although that isn’t entirely unheard of) but rather that their social interactions aren’t fully developed.

Young children might think they have played with their friend because they have stood next to them while playing with their own toy in the same sandpit. It could even be that they are so engrossed in their own game, they don’t even look up to see what their friend is doing. But, both children might leave the interaction believing they played with their friend. Neither child has progressed to actually playing together. Whereby they have the same aims, share their resources (toys) and invent a creative, fun activity using each other’s imagination and skills. That comes later in their development.

MDTs can also function like toddlers.

They believe they are part of a wider team, working effectively together because they do their work in close proximity with other practitioners. They might even sit around the same table from time to time, but the systems and structural collaboration required for effective communication and participation in co-productive working is not in place to nurture true integration.

Some MDTs haven’t progressed past the toddler years.

I know that as a parent our reality is that we are still living in a world/sandpit where people are working in parallel rather than collaboration. I, Rachel,  often need to communicate individually with each different practitioner as there aren’t systems in place for information to be disseminated.

Steps need to be made to transition from toddler to true integrated working. The success of the new Intergrated Care Boards (ICBs) and Integrated Care Systems requires maturity and structural change from toddlers to game of Dungeons and Dragons in Stranger Things.

The question is, what?

What needs to change for the rhetoric of a system founded on collaboration, collective responsibility and team working, to become the reality for practitioners and families?

My own thoughts are a whole other post.

#MultidisciplinaryTeams #MDTs #IntegratedCareSystems #ICS #IntegratedCareBoards #ICB #TransformativeCare #CoProduction #Collaboration #LivedExperience #ParentPerspective #PersonCentred #BornAtTheRightTimeTraining #EffectiveCommunication