Coping with conflict and confusing agendas in multidisciplinary community mental health teams

This paper arises from a study, conducted in the final year of general practitioner fundholding in Britain, which was designed to explore the factors influencing client allocation within six community mental health teams in the north of England. It describes the strategies employed to manage the problems created by the disparity between the stated and agreed purpose of the teams and the actual pattern of referrals. A number of strategies were identified in the six teams to manage this fundamental conflict--isolation, homogenization, fraternization, negotiation and manipulation. A sixth strategy was designed to ameliorate the loss of professional identity experienced by those who were operating in a 'foreign' milieu--that of demarcation.