Francis Etheridge

The interdisciplinary condition of work in relational professions of the health and social care field: a theoretical standpoint.

The best-known theories on interdisciplinarity in the health and social care field seek to identify personal characteristics and organizational predispositions favourable to interprofessionnal collaboration. This paper proposes a reversal of this positioning through the theorization of interdisciplinarity in the health and social care field as a condition of the work of its professionals rather than one of their peculiar attributes. To achieve this reversal, we set out the epistemological foundations of the current debate on interdisciplinarity.

Explaining the success or failure of quality improvement initiatives in long-term care organizations from a dynamic perspective.

The purpose of this study was to better understand why change initiatives succeed or fail in long-term care organizations. Four case studies from Québec, Canada were contrasted retrospectively. A constipation and restraints program succeeded, while an incontinence and falls program failed. Successful programs were distinguished by the use of a change strategy that combined “let-it happen,” “help-it happen,” and “make-it happen” interventions to create senses of urgency, solidarity, intensity, and accumulation. These four active ingredients of the successful change strategies propelled their respective change processes forward to completion. This paper provides concrete examples of successful and unsuccessful combinations of “let-it happen,” “help-it happen,” and “make-it happen” change management interventions. Change managers (CM) can draw upon these examples to best tailor and energize change management strategies in their own organizations.

Institutional integration, health and social care policy and social welfare: an application of the ‘path dependence’ theory in France

Introduction The PRISMA integration model is a promising method to implement integration in health and social services for elderly people. The PRISMA France study aims to investigate the implementation of this model, which relies on the establishment of advisory boards at institutional, organisational and professional levels of decision-making, in France. These boards are guided by whole systems thinking and function in a joined-up, co-ordinated manner. Method A qualitative approach was adopted to study the models implementation. Analyses were based on semi-structured interviews with actors of all levels of decision-making, observations of advisory board meetings and administrative documentations. Validity was insured by triangulation methods and content saturation. Results Our analyses revealed the complexity, instability and fragmentation of the institutional governance of publics policies for elderly people. The ‘path dependence’ to the Bismarckian system and the incomplete reforms of gerontological policies generate a cohabitation of three concurrent policies (national, regional and local) and a juxtaposition of two institutional systems (health and social care policy and social welfare). In such a context, no institution possesses sufficient authority to determine gerontological policy. Conclusion In the light of these analyse, the particularly complex and time-consuming implementation of the PRISMA model in France can be better understood.