ABSTRACT
Working in partnership, both across social care and health and with service users, has been a persistent theme of the health and social care modernisation agenda in the United Kingdom. Despite a relatively underdeveloped evidence base, the development of health and social care partnerships has continued to feature in recent policy and legislative initiatives in the United Kingdom. At the same time there has been a major shift in focus towards the outcomes that support services deliver. A central question remaining is whether the policy initiatives driving the development of health and social care partnerships are delivering improved outcomes, particularly the outcomes valued by people who use services. This article outlines research designed to explore this issue across 15 health and social care partnerships in England and Scotland, building from previous research by the Social Policy Research Unit based at the University of York. It sought to assess the extent to which health and social care partnerships deliver the outcomes that people who use services value, and to determine the features of partnership working associated with the delivery of these outcomes. A robust outcomes framework was defined, which provided the basis for interviews with those receiving support from partnerships. Working with three user-researcher organisations, interviews were completed with 230 individuals in 2006. On the basis of this, some service users were able to identify features of partnership that particularly contributed to improved outcomes. These included continuity of staff and sufficient staff and a range of resources, including the availability of long-term and preventative services. Given the definitional and methodological complexity surrounding partnership working, and the challenges of attribution, the study faced some limitations in its ability to make wider inferences about partnership and outcomes. A theory of change should be employed in future studies of this type.
Subject(s)
Caregivers , Cooperative Behavior , Outcome Assessment, Health Care , Social Support , Consumer Behavior , England , Evidence-Based Practice , Humans , Qualitative Research , ScotlandSubject(s)
Anthropology, Cultural , Empirical Research , Faculty , Folklore , Population Groups , Research Personnel , Anthropology, Cultural/education , Anthropology, Cultural/history , Anthropology, Physical/education , Anthropology, Physical/history , Body Weights and Measures/history , Body Weights and Measures/psychology , England/ethnology , Faculty/history , History, 19th Century , History, 20th Century , Humans , Population Groups/education , Population Groups/ethnology , Population Groups/history , Population Groups/legislation & jurisprudence , Population Groups/psychology , Research Personnel/education , Research Personnel/history , Research Personnel/psychology , Societies/economics , Societies/history , Societies/legislation & jurisprudence , Teaching/economics , Teaching/history , Travel/history , Travel/psychology , Universities/historyABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The levels and experiences of harassment of people with mental health problems in the community compared with those of the general population have not been explored. AIMS: To measure the levels and experience of harassment experienced by people with mental health problems in the community in Scotland and compare them with the general population. METHOD: Experiences of harassment were collected by interviewing 165 individuals with mental health problems and a control group of 165 people from the general population. RESULTS: Harassment in the community was found to be twice as common for individuals with mental health problems (41%) than for those in the general population (15%). The harassment commonly involved verbal abuse referring to the individual's mental health problems and was committed primarily by teenagers and neighbours. CONCLUSIONS: Harassment has a significantly higher prevalence among individuals with mental health problems living in the community and is believed to have a detrimental effect on mental health.
Subject(s)
Mental Disorders/psychology , Social Behavior , Adaptation, Psychological , Adolescent , Adolescent Behavior , Adult , Age Factors , Aged , Employment , Fear , Female , Health Education , Housing , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Interview, Psychological/methods , Male , Middle Aged , Motivation , Police , Prejudice , Verbal BehaviorABSTRACT
The development of integrated working across health and social care has featured strongly in recent policy directives in both England and Scotland. This is part of a wider agenda of partnership and collaboration, with a range of options from the creation of unified structures as in the care trusts in England to localised arrangements for joint working between individual professionals. This article presents a detailed matrix of drivers and barriers to integrated working which has been developed through a number of case studies of community care practice pursued as part of work undertaken for the Joint Future Group of the Scottish Executive. Drivers and barriers in three key areas are highlighted: national policy frameworks, the local planning context, and operational factors. It is anticipated that the matrix should provide a useful framework for the detailed scrutiny and operationalisation of integrated working.
