The goal of treatment by a multidisciplinary team in psychiatry is to address the various needs of patients and support them in living their lives in accordance with their own wishes. Physicians supervising multidisciplinary teams need to manage both actual care-related duties and team human resource issues. When conducting discussions with team members from other disciplines, it is desirable that physicians participate simply as an equal member of the team. With regard to patient-centered treatment and care, it may become important to consider the role of peer staff, as well as the response by the multidisciplinary team to patient wishes to terminate treatment. Multidisciplinary psychiatric teams carry out various duties at facilities that include psychiatric hospitals, clinics, and general hospitals. In order to promote systematic management at medical facilities, it is important to clarify operational decision making authority and responsibility; standardize duties, assessment of patient needs, provision of care, and recordkeeping; and regulate the use of terms and abbreviations so that they are understandable to all disciplines. Sufficient information on psychiatric treatment must be provided to patients and their families, as this is indispensable to enabling them to participate as equals in treatment discussions with the multidisciplinary team. Collaboration with nursing staff is likely to be helpful in preventing suicide by psychiatric inpatients. In the case of steering meetings, the supervising physician should preside, and should also prepare an agenda showing time allotted for each item of business, in order to facilitate efficient discussion. On the clinical side, it is desirable to hold regular conferences that feature the sharing of information on predetermined items. Successful management of multidisciplinary psychiatric teams may contribute to the future development and effective operation of teams that include peer staff and non-professional supporters.
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