ABSTRACT
It is well known that the individuals who come into contact with the many services set up to provide care, treatment and support, and which lead, where possible, to independence, good health and an acceptable life in society, have complex and changing needs. This means that no single part of an organisation, or even one organisation in total, is likely to meet all of the needs of any individual. Society has imposed a series of structures on the way that services are resourced and delivered, and each person requiring help or treatment has to negotiate his or her way through these complicated structures in the hope that specific, individual needs can be assessed, planned for and met. In this complex world the individual ‘client’ is often dependent on collaboration and co-operation between and within services to ensure that his or her needs are comprehensively met in a high-quality way. This chapter sets out to describe some of the issues that surround the issue of collaboration based upon the author’s personal experience and drawing upon the discussions in the professional journal of one of the professions, Clinical Psychology, which has a key interest in teamwork and collaboration.
