Multidisciplinary team meetings in community mental health: a systematic review of their functions
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has identified a need for greater clarity regarding the functions of multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings in UK community mental health services. The purpose of this paper is to identify the functions of these meetings by systematically reviewing both primary research and academic discussion papers.
Design/methodology/approach
Papers relating to adult community mental health teams (CMHTs) in the UK and published between September 1999 and February 2014 were reviewed and appraised using NICE quality checklists. The search was broad in scope to include both general CMHTs and specialist CMHTs such as early intervention psychosis services and forensic mental health teams. A thematic synthesis of the findings was performed to develop an overarching thematic framework of the reported functions of MDT meetings.
Findings
None of the 4,046 studies identified directly investigated the functions of MDT meetings. However, 49 mentioned functions in passing. These functions were categorised into four thematic domains: discussing the care of individual patients, teamwork, team management and learning and development. Several papers reported a lack of clarity about the purpose of MDT meetings and the roles of different team members which hindered effective collaboration.
Practical implications
Without clearly agreed objectives for MDT meetings, monitoring their effectiveness is problematic. Unwarranted variation in their functioning may undermine the quality of care.
Originality/value
This is the first systematic review to investigate the functions of CMHT MDT meetings in the UK. The findings highlight a need for empirical research to establish how MDT meetings are being used so that their effectiveness can be understood, monitored and evaluated.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was supported by NIHR Research Capability Funding allocated through University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the UCL Graduate School through the Yale-UCL Collaborative Exchange Programme. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or reporting of the study.
Author contributions: Caoimhe Nic a Bháird designed the study, undertook the systematic search and thematic synthesis and wrote the first draft of the paper. Penny Xanthopoulou independently screened and quality assessed a proportion of the reviewed papers, and contributed to writing and critically revising successive drafts of the paper. Georgia Black contributed to writing and critically revising successive drafts of the paper. Rosalind Raine, Susan Michie and Nora Pashayan contributed to the interpretation of results and critically revised successive drafts of the paper. All the authors approved the final draft.
Citation
Nic a Bháird, C., Xanthopoulou, P., Black, G., Michie, S., Pashayan, N. and Raine, R. (2016), "Multidisciplinary team meetings in community mental health: a systematic review of their functions", Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 119-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-03-2015-0010
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited