Interprofessional Collaboration in Finnish Residential Child Care: Challenges in Incorporating and Sharing Expertise Between the Child Protection and Health Care Systems

ABSTRACT

Many children taken into care tend to be in need of psychiatric treatment as well as child protection services, and thus the professional expertise of both systems must be coordinated in their care. However, it is widely known across Europe that collaboration between child protection services and mental health services is not working well and the outcomes for looked-after children are poor. In spite of drastic need for knowledge, interprofessional collaboration between residential workers and mental health practitioners is poorly explored in international research. Most importantly, very little is known about shared expertise in multi-agency teams between these systems. Based on the analysis of interprofessional focus group interviews (eight interviews with 17 practitioners) in Finland, it is claimed that both sides have unrealistic expectations and perceptions of the other professional grouping and its facilities to help high-need children. The study also indicates that the collaboration assumes an equality of status and responsibilities between the professionals that does not always exist amongst residential child care practitioners and mental health professionals. The analysis suggests that the concept of residential child care work itself needs more empirical research to strengthen the interprofessional competencies and enhance child-centred integrated care.

KEYWORDS:

• Residential child care
• child welfare
• foster care
• interprofessional work
• child protection
• institutional care

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Eeva Timonen-Kallio, Lic. Soc. Sc. (social work), works in Faculty of Health and Well-being in Turku University of Applied Sciences as a Senior Lecturer in social work and Research Leader in Empowering Children and Young People research group. She is a vice president of the FESET, association for higher education institutes in social education/social pedagogy in Europe.

Juha Hämäläinen, Professor of social work, especially social pedagogy at the University of Eastern Finland, has Ph.D. in social sciences with social policy as major and Licentiate Degree in educational sciences. His research has focused particularly on the history and theory of child welfare policy, and more generally on the history of social work and social care from a comparative point of view. He has also published on the concept and theory of social pedagogy and has examined the interconnections of social work and social policy, with a particular focus on historical aspects. In addition to this he has distinguished himself in parenthood, family and youth research. He has been editor-in-chief of the Finnish Journal of Social Pedagogy since 2001.

Eila Laukkanen is Professor of Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland and Chief Department of Adolescent Psychiatry University Hospital of Kuopio. Her doctoral thesis concerned the assessment of adolescent psychic development by the diagnostic profile modified for adolescents by M. Laufer and especially the relationship of adolescents with their body. She has published on the adolescents' self-mutilation and on psychiatric services for adolescents. She is the chief of long-term multidicipline research project concerning adolescents' well-being and risk behavior and alcohol use.

Notes

1. There are six reform schools in Finland, run by the state.

2. Qualified social workers in Finland have a master’s degree in social work.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by TEKES, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation 2010–2011 and the EU Lifelong Learning Programme [grant number 2012-3154/001-001].