Challenges of Interagency Collaboration: Serving a Young Child with Severe Disabilities

Services for young children with severe disabilities typically involve interaction with a wide range of professions and agencies. Although staff members in each agency may have a clear view of their own objectives, it is often the parents who assume responsibility for understanding the complementarity of these services and for coordinating information sharing among them. This paper explores the nature of interagency cooperation that occurred for one family over a two-year period. Apart from a shared placement in a child care center and a special school which indluded teachers and therapists, the child also required a range of medical services. The paper critically examines the strenghts and weaknesses of interagency communication and the role of the mother in coordinating this information. Implications for service providers are also examined.