title: Challenges of interprofessional collaboration in Iranian mental health services: A qualitative investigation.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nurses and other members of health care team provide mental patients with health services through interprofessional collaboration which is a main strategy to improve health services. Nevertheless, many difficulties are evidently influencing interprofessional collaboration in Iranian context. This paper presented the results of a study aimed to explore the context.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative study was conducted using in-depth interviews to collect data from 20 health professionals and 4 clients or their family members who were selected purposefully from the health centers affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Themes were identified using latent qualitative content analysis. Trustworthiness of the study was supported considering auditability, neutrality, consistency and transferability. The study lasted from 2010 to 2011.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Some important challenges were identified as protecting professional territory, medical oriented approach and teamwork deficits. They were all under a main theme emphasizing professionals' divergent views. It could shed insight into underlying causes of collaboration gaps among nurses and other health professionals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The three introduced themes implied difficulties mainly related to divergences among health professionals. Moreover, the difficulties revealed the need for training chiefly to improve their convergent shared views and approaches. Therefore, it is worthwhile to suggest interprofessional education for nurses and other professionals with special attention to improving interpersonal skills as well as mental health need-based services.
authors.affiliation: Assistant Professor, Nursing and midwifery Care Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Irajpour
authors.forename: Mousa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alavi
authors.forename: Samereh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Abdoli
authors.forename: Mohammad Bagher
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Saberizafarghandi
keywords: Iran; Mental health services; challenges; interprofessional collaboration