Your study level

We've preselected "All levels" for you, but you can change your study level at any time by choosing one of the options on this menu. Changing your study level will return you to the beginning of the module.

Close
The aim

This resource encourages us to consider the contribution that school based staff can make to the diagnosis of mental health difficulties in young people.

Vitally, school based staff can only make a valid contribution to the process when multidisciplinary
working is effective.

Evidence of good multidisciplinary team working (1)

For effective service delivery, it is essential that a full multidisciplinary team is in place and is operating appropriately.

There should be clear boundaries and clear levels of communication across all disciplines,
with good leadership.

Evidence of good multidisciplinary team working (2)

Despite the increased interest in this field, relatively few well designed studies are available on the prevalence of mental health difficulties in the population.

People with intellectual disability have been the focus of recent major national policy developments...but with little research evidence to inform these developments.
Cooper, 2007

In recent years, there has been a shift in our thinking from the purely biological paradigm (disease model of understanding) to a more bio-psycho-social paradigm (IASSID; MH-SIRG).

Take a look at the following diagram to get a better understanding of the biological, developmental, psychological and social interrelationships.

High Risk

Biological

Developmental

Psychological

Social

Different genetic syndromes, Impariment of brain function, Physical Illnesses, Susceptibility to mental illness, Severe and complex epilepsy, Sensory and
physical impairments

Psychological, sexual and physical abuse, Lack of meaningful oportunities, Negative life experiences, No engagement in day to day activities, Denial of individual needs, Atmosphere of blame, High levels of cerer stress, Gender, race, ethnic and
other discrimination

Cognitive strengths and weaknesses, Other neuropsychological impairments, Reinforcement of maladaptive behaviours, Impaired language development, Poor self-esteem, Peceived lack of emotional support, Impact of adverse life events

What is the teacher's role?

Read the following case study on Brian and answer the questions at the foot of the document.

Many of the questions are for members of the multidisciplinary team – however, teachers are an essential part of this team.

Discuss the role of the teacher in this process with your colleagues.

### Further reading

- Case study: Brian (DOC, 29 KB)

Back to top

#### Problems viewing video whilst online?

Problems viewing video whilst online may be the result of controls on the network you are using to access the SALT materials. Should problems viewing video persist, it is recommended that users download the video using the link provided.

#### Problems viewing video whilst offline?

If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer, you may find that some video resources will not play in your browser when you’re working offline. We’ve supplied a link with each video to open it in your default media player if this happens.

The mp4 videos on this site are not compatible with older versions of Windows Media Player. If you want to watch the videos offline, please download an alternative such as QuickTime or RealPlayer, and set this as your default media player. You will also need to do this if you want to download videos from the materials’ ‘Further reading’ area.

Alternatively, you may choose to work through the materials in Chrome or Safari.

Please go to your browser settings and turn on JavaScript to make full use of this site.