Interprofessional collaboration in Finnish residential child care; challenges for child protection and health care practitioners working together

The aim of my presentation is to present experiences and perceptions generated in the child protection and mental health care collaboration. The main interest is to investigate the Finnish situation; how practitioners with... [ view full abstract ]

The aim of my presentation is to present experiences and perceptions generated in the child protection and mental health care collaboration. The main interest is to investigate the Finnish situation; how practitioners with different professional orientations in two different systems reflect the chances for working together. The focus on investigating the interprofessional collaboration ‘on the borders’ is empathically in the child protection and foster care perspective. 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 residential child care work itself needs more empirical research to strengthen the interprofessional competencies and enhance child-centred integrated care.