Abstract
There is growing interest in collaborative cross-disciplinary educational models for preparing mental health professionals who work in integrated or multidisciplinary mental health services. The strengths of integrated and multidisciplinary mental health service models may be attributed to their patient-focus as well as to their suitability for managing case complexity. While mental health professions already work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams in the clinical context, better ways of educating students to integrate their disciplinary learning within a multidisciplinary context needs to be modeled, learned and shared. This paper presents a summary of an Australian Learning and Teaching funded project. The project, Developing Cross-Disciplinary Leadership Capacity for enhancing the Professional Education of Multidisciplinary Mental Health Practitioners, aim to develop effective, collaborative, cross-disciplinary leadership frameworks for university learning and teaching that enhance the preparation of the multidisciplinary mental health workforce in accordance with the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council National Mental Health Education and Training Advisory Group (AHMAC, 2002) National Practice Standards for the mental Health Workforce.