Developing leadership capacity for enhancing the professional education of multidisciplinary mental health practitioners

There have been a number of studies overseas investigating collaborative inter-professional educational models for preparing mental health professionals who work in integrated or multidisciplinary mental health services. Recent implementations include the Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Initiative Tool kit, and the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland Standards for Integrated Care Pathways for Mental Health. Integrated and multi-disciplinary models of primary health service delivery have been shown to be effective and suitable for delivery of services in regional and remote rural areas and for Indigenous clients in Australia. The key strengths of multidisciplinary mental health service models may be attributed to their client focus and adaptation to complexity. The overarching aim of this Australian Learning and Teaching funded project is to develop effective, collaborative, cross-disciplinary leadership frameworks for university learning and teaching which enhance the professional preparation of the multidisciplinary mental health workforce. We are developing strategies that will prepare students in professional health training programs to be better equipped to work in multidisciplinary settings. This paper presents an overview of the project and the results of the first sets of interdisciplinary workshops