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Early 20th Century:
Initial attempts to establish health care teams
in the United States.
Teams were developed by physicians primarily
to support the growing specialization of medicine
and called for the help of social workers and
educators to support patient care. Other professionals
were not included. They were not considered
professionals; their skills were considered
subordinate to the physician. (Drinka 2000)
Several of these specialty oriented teams developed
over the next decade mostly in hospital outpatient
departments.
The 1960's "Great
Society": Community Health Center
Movement.
A major federal initiative funded training
for health professionals in a primary care oriented
interdisciplinary health care team. The team
was medical dominated, the focus remained on
delivering more effective "medical care
". By 1975 the Community Health Center
Movement created an essential need for training.
The concept spread to the rapidly growing and
much neglected geriatric population.
End of the 20th Century:
shift to "health care" model.
This model includes many types of health care
and heath care-related professionals and nonprofessionals
working in a community to meet the complex and
varied needs of individuals, families and the
communities in which they live.
As the concept and practice of health care
teams developed and was applied to a variety
of settings and practice styles, including primary
care, the terminology used to describe these
teams has become complex and sometimes confusing.
Terms such as "interdisciplinary",
"multidisciplinary" and "collaborative"
sometimes mean different things to different
people.
Research on the effectiveness of interdisciplinary
teams has important implications for patients
and health professionals, especially in our
managed care driven health care environment.
An analysis of this research has been reported
in the literature.
Read: Schofield
RF and Amodeo M (1999). Interdisciplinary teams
in health care and human settings: are they
effective? Health and Social Work Vol
24(3), 210.
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