Strength Through Sharing: Interdisciplinary Teamwork in Providing Health and Social Services to Northern Native Communities

Abstract

The delivery of health and social services in Canada's northern First Nations is undermined by the fact that professionals from outside and para-professionals from the communities often fail to respect one another's capabilities or to undertand one another's roles and, consequently, do not work well together. This paper explores the personal, professional, and situational causes, using examples of mental health care in the Sioux Lookout Zone of northwestern Ontario. Arguing that an interdisciplinary team approach is the ideal and, perhaps, the only real way in which essential services can be delivered, the authors suggest ways to achieve more effective collaboration.