Conclusion
-
Kirsi Juhila
Abstract
This book has examined how policy trends that promote interprofessional collaboration and service user participation are implemented (or not) through frontline practices in multi-agency meetings. The challenges faced by service users are seen as complex and interconnected, demanding many kinds of expertise for them to be understood, assessed and resolved. As a result, collaboration and participation together have become the prevailing approach in health and social care policy in Western welfare states. Bringing together diverse viewpoints of professionals and service users is also thought to create boundary spaces that, at their best, produce joined-up thinking and constructive debate, resulting in novel ideas. Chapter 1 has provided a more thorough introduction to the trend and its ‘selling points’. In the literature, concepts such as ‘relational turn’, ‘relational agency’ and ‘responsive process’ have emerged in an effort to understand collaborative and integrated welfare and its potential for generating new common knowledge (Edwards, 2011). In this literature too, collaboration and participation are perceived as positive and desirable ideals. However, a number of concerns about the policy approach have also arisen and been presented in the literature. As outlined in Chapter 1, instead of equal collaboration, the policy may lead to:
-
loss of specialised expertise by professionals and service users;
-
a blurring of professional responsibilities;
-
increased responsibility being placed on service users to participate;
-
asymmetrical power relations between participants;
-
comprehensive surveillance of service users’ lives.
Abstract
This book has examined how policy trends that promote interprofessional collaboration and service user participation are implemented (or not) through frontline practices in multi-agency meetings. The challenges faced by service users are seen as complex and interconnected, demanding many kinds of expertise for them to be understood, assessed and resolved. As a result, collaboration and participation together have become the prevailing approach in health and social care policy in Western welfare states. Bringing together diverse viewpoints of professionals and service users is also thought to create boundary spaces that, at their best, produce joined-up thinking and constructive debate, resulting in novel ideas. Chapter 1 has provided a more thorough introduction to the trend and its ‘selling points’. In the literature, concepts such as ‘relational turn’, ‘relational agency’ and ‘responsive process’ have emerged in an effort to understand collaborative and integrated welfare and its potential for generating new common knowledge (Edwards, 2011). In this literature too, collaboration and participation are perceived as positive and desirable ideals. However, a number of concerns about the policy approach have also arisen and been presented in the literature. As outlined in Chapter 1, instead of equal collaboration, the policy may lead to:
-
loss of specialised expertise by professionals and service users;
-
a blurring of professional responsibilities;
-
increased responsibility being placed on service users to participate;
-
asymmetrical power relations between participants;
-
comprehensive surveillance of service users’ lives.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- From a collaborative and integrated welfare policy to frontline practices 9
- Examining talk and interaction in meetings of professionals and service users 33
- How chairs use the pronoun ‘we’ to guide participation in rehabilitation team meetings 63
- Working within frames and across boundaries in core group meetings in child protection 83
- Alignment and service user participation in low-threshold meetings with people using drugs 115
- Sympathy and micropolitics in return-to-work meetings 141
- Negotiating epistemic rights to knowledge concerning service users’ recent histories in mental health meetings 171
- Relational agency and epistemic justice in initial child protection conferences 197
- Conclusion 225
- Postscript 241
- Index 247
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xi
- Introduction 1
- From a collaborative and integrated welfare policy to frontline practices 9
- Examining talk and interaction in meetings of professionals and service users 33
- How chairs use the pronoun ‘we’ to guide participation in rehabilitation team meetings 63
- Working within frames and across boundaries in core group meetings in child protection 83
- Alignment and service user participation in low-threshold meetings with people using drugs 115
- Sympathy and micropolitics in return-to-work meetings 141
- Negotiating epistemic rights to knowledge concerning service users’ recent histories in mental health meetings 171
- Relational agency and epistemic justice in initial child protection conferences 197
- Conclusion 225
- Postscript 241
- Index 247
