Collaboration in practice. Experiences from a multidisciplinary research project on child abuse and neglect

This paper describes experiences from a three-year research project concerning questions of child abuse and neglect. The emphasis is placed on an attempt to define the real difficulties that have arisen during the course of this work, e.g. group pressure, breaks in continuity, goal heterogeneity, role conflicts and differences in frames of reference. Collaboration problems must be taken seriously and deserve systematic investigation. Multidisciplinary collaboration in different connections within medical, health and social care is of particular importance at this time when the care resources are limited. At the same time it is of decisive importance that the members of the team clarify their attitudes towards certain fundamental questions.