Team dynamics in different phases of admission

The multiprofessional teams described in the last chapter come together in their working lives to confront complex tasks and difficult psychological realities in their patients. This chapter aims to explore some of the ways that teams organise around the demands of these tasks at different phases of the admission process - since much of the success or failure of their work will rely on the effectiveness of team functioning. Naturally, teams differ in composition and outlook: the approach in this chapter is taken primarily from systems and group dynamic theory; good references to the background of the approach can be found in Obholzer and Roberts (1994) and Hirschhorn (1990).