As inter-agency working has grown increasingly important within UK public services, inter-professional education (IPE) has been perceived as a solution to a number of the practical difficulties associated with this way of working. Particularly, IPE is regarded as crucial within areas such as safe guarding children, community mental health services, older people's services and services for disabled children where the quality of care needs to be delivered by seamless multi-professional teams. Written by leading specialists in the field, this book provides a thorough introduction to IPE in health and social care, examining the issues in detail and providing much needed practical advice. The authors summarise recent trends in policy, establish what we can learn from research and practice and provides readers with an essential set of IPE 'do's and don'ts'. It will be a core text for undergraduate and post-qualifying interprofessional students on health and social care courses, as well a students of nursing, social work, social policy and medicine.
Introduction; What is interprofessional education and why does it matter?; What does research tell us?; Hot topics and emerging issues; Useful frameworks and concepts; Recommendations for policy and practice.