The Treatment Team

Abstract

The interdisciplinary treatment team has been defined by Horowitz (1970) as a small work group of helping or healing professionals from different disciplines. All treatment decisions in the Gerontology Program were products of deliberation by such teams. The subject of this chapter is a description of these teams and the nature of their functioning. First, some information regarding the historical development of these teams in mental hospitals will be helpful. The development of interdisciplinary mental health treatment teams is closely related to the introduction of more effective pharmacological and other treatments for mental illness. The development of the major tranquilizers, especially the phenothiazines, in the 1950s began what has been called the revolution in state hospitals (Bower, 1970). Prior to this time, inmates, as they were called, were expected to spend the rest of their lives in the hospital (Bower, 1970). As patients began demonstrating an ability to act responsibly when given increased freedom, attitudes toward them changed. Many were now seen as rehabilitable and only temporarily hospitalized, and more active efforts to return them to the community began to develop.