Integrating health and social care: interprofessional relations in multidisciplinary teams in Italy

Integrating health and social care has been one of the main objectives of recent policy reforms in Italy in both sectors, the main drivers being the necessity to meet changing population needs (chronic and multiple diseases) and the demand for more effective and holistic treatments. Integration has been implemented on three different levels: institutional, organizational, professional. At the professional level a number of multi-professional teams have been created or transformed (if already existing) in several areas: aged persons, under age persons, the disabled, abuses and maltreatments, addictions, Alzheimer disease, adoption and fosterage. The paper will describe and discuss some results of an empirical research based on about fifty interviews on managers and members of multi-professional teams from the Turin area. Research topics include: inter-professional tensions, models of team work, obstacles to integration, effects on the traditionally dominant role of the medical profession, effects on the relationships between professionals and managers.