Multidisciplinary or nondisciplinary: evaluation of staff functioning in a community mental health centre

This paper describes the staffing aspects of an experimental community mental health centre (Melville Clinic). The different components of staff roles of members of a team consisting of different health professionals, crystallised during the three-year period with a shift from a 'nondisciplinary' to a 'multidisciplinary' approach, with preservation of 'generalised' and 'specialised', 'clinical' and 'community' roles of all staff members. The decision-making in the centre oscillated between group decisions by all staff members, and the acceptance of the leading role of the psychiatrist with the active multidisciplinary teamwork in community mental health centres.