Psychiatrists as treatment team leaders: Pitfalls and rewards

The multidisciplinary treatment team has become a conventional component of inpatient psychiatric care delivery. Treatment team dynamics and their implications for the patient, the team members, the organization, and the team leader in particular have been generally understated in the training of psychiatrists, however, as has its value as a model for learning about administration. This article highlights the history and evolution of the multidisciplinary treatment team in psychiatry, the mix of mental health disciplines, philosophies, and roles involved, the characteristics of mental health care professionals, the conflicting manifest and latent work group tasks, and the dynamics and functions of team leadership. While reviewing information on which to base a systematic approach to team leadership, the author advocates for application of universal standards for education in administrative psychiatry including supervised leadership of multidisciplinary treatment teams and discussions of complimentary readings, examples of which are provided.