Defining Service Coordination: A Social Work Perspective

Perceived care coordination among permanent supportive housing participants: Evidence from a managed care plan in the United States

Homelessness is a pervasive public health problem in the United States (U.S.). Under the U.S. Affordable Care Act, the nation's public health insurance program (Medicaid) was expanded to serve more individuals, including those experiencing homelessness. Coupled with changes in financial incentives designed to reduce healthcare costs, health plans, hospitals and large health systems have started to operate permanent supportive housing (PSH) programmes as a healthcare benefit. To better understand patient perceptions of care coordination in a PSH programme operated by a large health plan in Southern California, we conducted 22 semi-structured in-depth patient interviews between October and November 2019. Two coders analysed these data inductively and deductively, using pre-identified domains and open coding. Coding reliability and thematic saturation were also assessed. Findings indicated positive experiences with care coordination for physical health and social supports, such as food distribution and transportation. Identified service gaps included mental health support and help securing public assistance (e.g., cash benefits). Opportunities to enhance PSH care coordination were also identified, such as the need for a simplified approach. Hospitals, health plans and systems considering PSH programmes may look to these results for implementation guidance.

Integrating psychosocial approaches into the management of childhood functional gastrointestinal disorders: a role for social work

FGID is one of the most common pain conditions in children and adversely affects their functioning and quality of life. Recent approaches to the management of paediatric FGID recognise the importance of an integrated biopsychosocial approach. Unfortunately, research findings show that psychosocial factors are often not adequately addressed in the management of FGID in children. We recently conducted a survey of 327 paediatric doctors in Australia to investigate their approaches to managing two of the most common childhood FGID - functional abdominal pain (FAP) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Findings provide important insights into paediatricians' perceptions of the role of psychosocial issues and interventions in these conditions. Implications for social work are discussed.

Implementing Fall Prevention Guidelines with Vulnerable Older Adults: The Social Work Role

Falls are the leading cause of injury among the older adult population, resulting in costly and devastating aftermaths. National fall prevention guidelines (FPGs) have been established to assist healthcare professionals with addressing fall risk, but little is understood about the extent to which FPGs have been implemented by social workers. Social workers, however, may beuniquely positioned to implement FPGs with older adults due to their expertise in care coordination and home- and community-based service settings. This conceptual paper addresses the timely issue of fall prevention and social workers' potential role in implementing FPGs to address fall risk.

Identity formation and strategy development in overlapping institutional fields

Purpose

Care farming is an underexplored example of agricultural diversification. In their process of diversification, care farmers are newcomers to the healthcare sector, facing high entry barriers and lacking the skills required to build a solid and legitimate presence in this new domain. Changes in the care regime have provided opportunities for new players, like regional organizations of care farmers, to gain access to care budgets. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how strategies designed to establish regional organizations of care farms with similar access to institutional resources unfold and are translated into entrepreneurial behavior, organizational identity and legitimacy, and help provide access to care budgets.

Design/methodology/approach

Using entrepreneurship, identity formation and legitimacy building as guiding concepts, the authors interviewed stakeholders and analyzed activities and documents to gain a broad perspective with regard to the organizations, skills and activities.

Findings

The authors identified two types of regional care farm organizations: a cooperative and a corporate type. While the corporate type clearly exhibited entrepreneurial behavior, leading to a trustful and appealing organizational identity, substantial fund-raising and an early manifestation of institutional and innovative legitimacy in the care sector, the cooperative type initially lacked entrepreneurial agency, which in turn led to a lack of legitimacy and a slow development toward a more professional market-oriented organization. Manifesting entrepreneurial behavior and strategically aligning the healthcare and agricultural sectors, and building up both institutional and innovative legitimacy in the care sector proved to be crucial to the successful development of regional organizations of care farms. This study contributes to existing literature by exploring relationships between entrepreneurial and institutional strategies, legitimacy, organizational identity and logics.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by exploring how in times with changes in institutional logics, strategies to establish new organizations unfold. The authors have shown how differences in strategy to establish new organizations with similar access to institutional resources unfold and are translated into diverging organizational identities and degrees of legitimacy. Entrepreneurial behavior is the key to create a trustful and appealing identity and innovative and institutional legitimacy which is important for providing access to an institutionalized sector.