ABSTRACT
In this chapter I use my experience of working as a consultant or facilitator with the staff of four community mental health teams (CMHTs) from their inception with the aim of understanding why multidisciplinary work in CMHTs is so fraught with difficulty. The creation of genuinely multidisciplinary teams working outside the institution in the community at large presents us with many opportunities and challenges. However, both managers and workers within such teams feel that their excitement and commitment to the idea is undermined by a sense of being under siege which arises from the demands placed upon them. That these demands often feel impossible to achieve is evident in the literature on such teams, and authors vary in their views as to whether the struggle to provide care through CMHTs is worthwhile or not.
