Interprofessional Learning and Psychiatric Expertise in Mental Health Courts

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Psychiatry
• Law

Background:

• Interprofessional collaboration is vital for reducing severe mental illness overincarceration.
• Learning to collaborate involves understanding other disciplines' values and practical workplace skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess two models of interprofessional learning for psychiatrists in a mental health court.
• To understand how psychiatrists learn to divert individuals with psychiatric disease from jail.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative ethnographic study over 4 years in a US mental health court.
• Interviews with 3 psychiatrists and observation of 87 staff meetings and hearings.
• Grounded theory approach with NVivo 12 for data analysis.

Main Results:

• Psychiatrists successfully diverted individuals using practical skills like education on pharmaceuticals and therapeutic framing.
• Expertise was underutilized due to team composition, hindering refinement of eligibility criteria.
• Acquiring new interactive skills was key, rather than deep familiarity with legal professionals' values.

Conclusions:

• Discerning opportunities and blockages for applying expertise are crucial for interprofessional learning.
• This single case study highlights the importance of practical skills in interprofessional collaboration for reducing overincarceration.
• Further research in other treatment courts is needed to generalize findings.