Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative Essay

The Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative define interprofessional collaboration as a “partnership between a team of health providers and a client in a participatory collaborative and coordinated approach to shared decision making around health and social issues” (Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative, 2009).

After many discussions with peers, I have found that for a team to work collaboratively there are some key qualities that are needed, which include:
• Respect (for each other and ourselves)
• Clear and common client goals (with involvement from the client)
• Supportive environment
• Leadership
• Care for emotional wellbeing
• Social support and sympathetic team
• Tolerance, patience and no blaming one another
• Shared responsibility
• Communication
• Understanding other’s roles, trusting and appreciating

My first real experience in an allied health team was on my 2nd year placement. I was working in a mental illness and brain disorders unit. Within this unit there were two different wards. However, there was only one occupational therapist for the both wards, so I was able to sit in on both meetings. It was interesting to see the difference between how they both worked. One team I personally thought collaborated really well together. Everyone in the team was able to communicate the relative information needed and I believe that everyone was well respected and each profession was valued. However, with the second team, it seemed as though there was one member Jane who appeared to think her profession was more important then everyone else’s. She did take leadership in this meeting, which in one aspect is what you need, but she would cut other team members off when speaking if she thought the information was irrelevant, which I find quite rude and disrespectful and can have a negative impact on the effectiveness of a