Inter-professional collaboration and the its ability to function

The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand how the professions within the human service organization experience and describe inter-professional collaboration. The questions that the study discusses is the negative versus positive aspects that inter-professional collaboration entails and what conditions that are necessary for such cooperation to work. The results are analysed with the help of Blumers (1969) theory of symbolic interactionism and Goffmans (2014) theory of team and appearance. The empirical material for the study is collected from semi-structured interviews with eight informants: two counsellors from the neuropsychiatric unit, two counsellors from kids and youth psychiatry, one counsellor and one sexologist from the youth clinic and three school nurses from different schools. The studies informants find that the inter-professional collaboration is crucial for the care that is provided for the patients. The informants believe that the consequences of non-cooperation would be longer treatments, misconceptions among the professionals and reduced overall visibility of patients' needs. The difficulties that the studies informants find with the cooperation are mainly the cooperation between different organizations. The difficulties include the different routines, loyalties, laws and objectives that organizations have. The conditions that the studies informants think is needed for a working inter-professional collaboration are effective communication, knowledge about each others professions, the staff’s willingness to cooperate and to increase learning about inter-professional collaboration