Abstract
Children and their families use a lot of different services, which poses challenges in terms of cooperation between service providers. The purpose of the study was to evaluate and compare the functioning of this cooperation between services for children and families in Finland's mainland municipalities from the viewpoints of employees and managers. The study was carried out using a cross-sectional survey design. Data were gathered using two postal surveys from employees and managers working in health care, social welfare and educational settings. The data consisted of responses from 457 employees and 327 managers. Employees working in primary health care and education services assessed cooperation as working better than did those working in social welfare, special health care or mental health and substance abuse services. Well-functioning cooperation at the operational and strategic level was related to good awareness of services and to agreed and well-functioning cooperation practices with few barriers to cooperation. Employees were more critical than managers concerning the occurrence of barriers and about the agreed cooperation practices. Successful cooperation in providing services for children and families requires an awareness of services, management structures that support cooperation, agreed practices and efforts to overcome barriers to cooperation.
Highlights
Children and their families use a lot of different services, which poses challenges in terms of cooperation between service providers
Functionality of cooperation Almost three-quarters (70%) of employees thought that cooperation worked fairly or very well for employees working in primary health care
Cooperation in providing services for children and families in Finnish municipalities works better with employees working in primary health care and education services than with those in social welfare, special health care, or mental health and substance abuse services
Summary
Children and their families use a lot of different services, which poses challenges in terms of cooperation between service providers. Conclusions: Successful cooperation in providing services for children and families requires an awareness of services, management structures that support cooperation, agreed practices and efforts to overcome barriers to cooperation. Children and their families represent a significant population group that use a lot of different services in health care, social welfare, education and other sectors, either at the same time or at different stages of the lifecycle [1–3]. Yes No Sector Combined social welfare and health care Health care Social welfare services Education services Location of workplace Urban Rural Amount of population in the municipality Under 4000 inhabitants 4000–15,000 inhabitants More than 15,000 inhabitants
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
