Mental Health A Person-centred Approach

Regardless of the setting of mental health care, an interprofessional or multidisciplinary approach is a sound response to the multifaceted problems faced by people with mental health problems. Through collaboration with consumers, the needs of the person experiencing mental health problems can be comprehensively met.An interprofessional workforce involves a range of professions and other staff with different educational backgrounds. These are broadening, increasingly, from the traditional professions employed in mental health services – medical, nursing, social work, psychology and occupational therapy – to embrace other workers with skills to contribute. Some of these groups are subject to regulation through their professional bodies and national regulatory authorities. Other groups working with the mental health workforce are not subject to such authority or regulation. This has supported the development of standards for the mental health workforce in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, in order to provide uniform and consistent guidelines to govern everyone working with people experiencing mental health problems.