Abstract
Throughout the 1990s mental health care has shifted from a hospital to a community-based service. Government policy indicates that staff require further education as a result of the shift to community care. However, none of the United Kingdom policy documents or mental health literature prescribes what education is required. Consequently this multidisciplinary study aimed to identify what skills, if any, were required by hospital-based staff to move to a community-based working environment. Study findings suggest advantages in perceiving skills as overlapping and interconnecting. Five common core skills and skill differences between professional groups are identified. It is argued that core skills are central and common to all groups and specialist skills are those that distinguish professional groups one from another and different grades of staff within professional groups. While problems of multidisciplinary education are considered, nevertheless a case is made for educating staff in core skills within a multidisciplinary environment which may be beneficial in achieving community care goals.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 218-228 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Journal of Advanced Nursing |
Volume | 29 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 1999 |
Keywords
- community care
- mental health
- multidisciplinary education
- multidisciplinary practice
- skills
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nursing(all)