I occupy a unique space in healthcare, one shaped by lived experience on both sides of the system. I have spent years working as an occupational therapist, contributing to education and training at university level. I have also been a patient and a recipient of the very care models I help each. It is from this dual perspective that I have come to truly understand the critical importance of interdisciplinary teams.
As an academic and clinician, I have seen the slow but meaningful inclusion of lived experience within occupational therapy curricula. It is happening but is incremental and inconsistent. In many cases, lived experience is included as an add-on: a last-minute invitation, a guest lecture, or a single appearance in a neurology module focused on stroke. While these contributions are valuable, they are ad hoc rather than embedded and rarely mirrored across other disciplines.
What I am increasingly realising is just how difficult it is to have lived experience recognised as essential, not optional. And just as challenging is encouraging genuine collaboration between disciplines in educational settings. We talk about multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary care, but too often we teach in silos.
Yet as a patient, the importance of an interdisciplinary approach was unmistakable.
Good outcomes did not come from one profession working in isolation. They came from shared goals, aligned communication, and professionals who understood not only their own role, but how it intersected with others. When teams worked together and decisions were collaborative with me, my care felt coherent, respectful, and purposeful. When this didn’t happen, it felt fragmented and confusing, no matter how skilled the individual clinicians were.
This raises an uncomfortable but necessary question: How can we expect new graduates to value interdisciplinary collaboration if they have never seen it modelled?
If students are taught separately, assessed separately, and rarely exposed to shared learning or shared decision-making, how can we reasonably expect them to prioritise collaboration once they enter practice? How can we expect them to include patients as active partners in care, or to check that the entire team is aligned around the same goals, if they have never witnessed this in action?
Universities play a powerful role in shaping not just clinical skills, but professional identity. If interdisciplinary collaboration and lived experience are presented as something that happens “later” or “in practice”, then they will remain secondary in the minds of future clinicians. If, however, they are embedded across curricula, co-taught, and co-designed with people who have lived experience, they become part of the foundation of care.
From where I stand now, having lived both roles, the message is clear: interdisciplinary teamwork is not an optional extra. It is fundamental to safe, effective, and person-centred care. But it must be taught, demonstrated, and valued early, not assumed to develop on its own.
If we want future therapists to collaborate well, to centre the patient, and to work toward shared goals, then we must show them what that looks like together, while they are still learning how to become professionals.
Because collaboration, like care itself, is something that must be experienced to be understood.
How can you model working with other teams to enhance both the person-centred care that you provide, your ability to collaborate with other disciplines and the inclusion of lived experience?