The effects of interprofessional education for mental health and related professionals in Japan: A network analysis

Although numerous Interprofessional Education (IPE) programs exist for students, those specifically designed for actual professionals remain limited. To address this, we developed the Psychiatric Staff Education Program for Transdisciplinary Approach (PsySEPTA), an online IPE program tailored for mental health and related professionals. PsySEPTA provides systematic training covering both foundational psychiatric knowledge and interprofessional collaboration. This study investigates how participation in PsySEPTA influences participants' network structures, using network analysis.

Before and after the one-year program, we conducted surveys using the name generator method. Participants were asked to list up to four professionals with whom they regularly collaborate in their workplace. We then performed network analysis and computed various structural metrics.

We analyzed the responses of 53 participants from 12 different professions. Degree centrality showed mixed patterns of change across professions. Highly connected professions (initial degree ≥ 40) showed decreased centrality post-program (e.g., nurses decreased from 82 to 74, midwives from 60 to 55, mental health social workers from 46 to 40), while several less connected professions increased (e.g., care managers from 6 to 14, public health nurses from 19 to 21, social workers from 9 to 11). The betweenness centralization, overall network metrics, increased after the program.

This study is among the few that examine the evolution of professional communication networks associated with an IPE program for working professionals. The findings suggest that PsySEPTA may have helped participants expand their scope of collaboration, potentially enabling more seamless and effective interprofessional engagement.