Paraprofessionals and psychiatric teams: an updated review

Paraprofessionals and psychiatric teams are vital, interrelated, and complex components of the mental health care system. However, the literature on them is meager and contradictory. The authors begin the literature update by defining the relevant terms and describing the evolution of paraprofessionals and psychiatric teams. New developments indicate that paraprofessionals are able to perform many basic treatment tasks as members of psychiatric teams and that they are highly adaptable to addressing the service delivery gaps that have occurred during deinstitutionalization and in the treatment of schizophrenia. Advances in the training, structure, and process of psychiatric teams are discussed, and the authors cite new criteria for cost- and treatment-effective teams. With these developments, the authors discuss the problems still faced by paraprofessionals and psychiatric teams.