Teaching Interprofessional Practice: A Course on a System of Care for Children with Severe Emotional Disturbance and their Families

Abstract

A college course was developed to educate preservice mental health professionals about a model for mental health care titled Family-Centered Interdisciplinary Practice: System of Care. System of Care is a seamless system of collaborating agencies providing services that are wrapped around families of children with severe emotional disturbance (SED) so that there is a safety net as family members struggle with their child's illness. The course was interdisciplinary in design, construction, and teaching and involved family members of children with SED as faculty partners. The underlying principles of the course were interprofessional collaboration, family empowerment, family-centered care, cultural competence, and community-based services. The primary goal for the course was the development of a model for educating preprofessionals to work collaboratively with other professionals and with families.A college course was developed at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro to educate preservice mental health professionals, from a variety of social and health care disciplines, about a model for provid-

“Crying Alone With My Child:” Parenting a School Age Child Diagnosed With Bipolar Disorder

“…A move away from insularity and toward collaboration may help prevent nursing knowledge being invisible to others (Herrick, Arbuckle, & Claes, 2002). The Pew Health Commission Report (1995) mandated that we should be competent in working in interdisciplinary teams.…”