Staff Activity Patterns in a Community Mental-Health Team for Older-People

The study used a diary-based approach to examine the distribution of time of different professional staff in two community mental health teams for the elderly. It was possible to discriminate between two broad groups of staff, defined as core workers and extended role members of the teams based upon the range of responsibilities and patterns of time use. The latter group consisted of clinicians and psychologists. About three-quarters of staff time was spent in client-related activities, although there were differences between core and extended workers, the latter undertaking more service-related activities. The similarity of patterns of time use by core workers and other community-based workers is noted and the distinction between key workers and care managers is considered.