In defence of multidisciplinary teams in child and adolescent psychiatry

Abstract

Early in 1992, two articles were published on the subject of multidisciplinary teams in child and adolescent psychiatry. In the first, Mathai (1992) challenges the “accepted multidisciplinary model” as being “unworkable”. He comments that in many teams an appearance of multidisciplinary working can hide covert conflicts and goes on to propose that all referrals should be made to the consultant psychiatrist who will then decide to whom these referrals should be allocated within the team.