Chapter 5: Understanding Multi-Sector Collaboration for Accountable Care Organizations: Models of Care for Mental Health Collaboratives

Collaboration through multi-sector partnerships has been gaining interest among academics and practitioners searching to find solutions to wicked problems. Similarly, there has been a shift from concentrating only on manageable problems to considering alternative ways to handle severe issues. The barriers that prevent us as a society from achieving an optimal level of governance include bounded rationality, pluralities of objectives, and political polarization (Rittel & Webber, 1973). Collaboration is an ideal system for resolving wicked problems. Donaldson (2005) noted that socio-political trends such as devolution and changing administrations interrupt services for mental health care, but collaboration softens the effects of these changes due to the varied participants in the collaboration who are able to compensate for potential loss of funds or services.