Professional collaboration, partnership and co-operation

Working with others can highlight differences in views and approaches, this makes good quality partnership work even more important to ensure the individual remains the focus of all MCA processes.

Difference of views and approaches can be due to:

• Different professional backgrounds
• Different models and theories used in practice
• Different professional language

Historically, and sometimes even now, professionals have assumed their specific professional experience and knowledge overrides individual choice, resulting in a clash of culture with other professionals who view capacity and decision making differently.

The MCA requires practitioners to work closer together, involving individuals in all decisions and listening to the views of others. For some practitioners this is quite alien as they have been used to making unilateral, evidence-based decisions, which often went unquestioned.  Instead the MCA requires:

• Collaborative approach,
• Consideration of a range of options
• Decision-making which aligns decisions to the individual’s wishes, beliefs and values