III Working together: the therapeutic team (by dr. P. Bierenbroodspot)

Therapeutic intervention starting from different therapeutic and professional angles with the same (group of) patients makes it necessary to create a thorough cooperation and coordination within the therapeutic teams to avoid the situation in which therapies counteract each other. In the therapeutic teams attention should be paid to the contents of treatment coordinating the common goal, to the technical-organizational aspects of working together, regulating f.i. the responsibilities of each member of the team, and to sociopsychological phenomena arising when people with different personality traits are to work closely together. The common goal of treatment, the membership of the team, the matter of each members' influence on the process of decision-making, the communication lines and the responsibilities of each member of the team should in any case be clariefied.
Mutual influence of the therapeutic team and the patients' community are discussed.