Conduct an Effective Interagency Team Meeting

The following guidelines have been created to assist Local and Regional Interagency Teams in conducting effective Team meetings.

1. Functions of the interagency team meeting:
1. A mechanism for child-driven, family-focused treatment
2. A mechanism for individualization and positive envisioning
3. A mechanism to integrate prescribed expertise with multi-system participation.
4. Within public sector managed care: a mechanism to incorporate the BH-MCO into the child-centered, family-focused approach consistent with CASSP Principles
2. Desired outcomes of the interagency team meeting:
1. Achieving consensus, based on common understanding and common goals
2. Initiating and maintaining an ongoing process of collaboration and change e.g., team committed to the child over time, not just to meet in order to obtain funding
3. Implementing practical, workable solutions for the child, including integrated treatment and feasible sources of funding
3. Prerequisites for an effective interagency team meeting:
1. Cross-system familiarity: From the top-down and the bottom-up, with expansion of the middle. Knowledge of the roles and mandates of others.
2. Good will: A readiness to share time and expertise, consider the child's needs, and offer the benefit of the doubt to team members
3. Preparation: Creating a meeting context: recruiting participants; confirming participation; sending meeting notices; preparing the child and family
4. Meeting protocol and methodology: Need for a specific protocol for the meeting, so that everyone is oriented to the process and time is used effectively. Need for a designated team facilitator, to ensure that essential processes-including envisioning-occur.
5. Follow-up implementation and monitoring: Designated person takes, then distributes, meeting notes; clarity regarding specific tasks of each participant following the meeting; establishing mechanism for information exchange; setting next meeting date.