Communication and Collaboration in a Drug Court Team

A multidisciplinary team is a hallmark feature of drug courts and other specialized treatment dockets. Comprised primarily of practitioners from the criminal legal system and mental health and addictions services treatment systems, team members exchange information and engage in shared decision-making. Though practitioners in these contexts have some guidance regarding organizational and structural elements needed to facilitate efficient and effective communication and collaboration, less is known about the role individual team members' actions and behaviors play in this process. Using data from a survey, process evaluation, and qualitative interviews administered to 19 members of a single drug court team in a Midwestern urban setting, this study describes several communication and collaboration practices of drug court team members and explores how they may contribute to the general effectiveness of the drug court. This study underscores the potential utility of operationalizing and measuring day-to-day, individual-level communication and collaboration practices in future studies of drug court process, in order to index drug court team dynamics that may contribute to its effectiveness. Impact Statement Very little is known about the content, quality, and general nature of communication and collaboration among various members of drug court teams, yet communication and collaboration are touted as integral to the success of drug courts. This study offers a look at one structurally integrated drug court team's experiences with, and thoughts about, communication and collaboration practices, and explores how these components may impact court functioning and effectiveness.