Integrating health and social care: Interprofessional relations of multidisciplinary teams in Italy

Abstract

Integrating health and social care has been a major objective of recent policy reforms in Italy. Integration has been implemented on three levels, namely institutional, organizational and professional. At the professional level multiprofessional teams have been created or adapted (if existing) in several areas, including among others, care of the elderly, the disabled and the addicted. This article discusses the findings of an empirical study based on 57 interviews with managers and members of community-based, multiprofessional teams in the Turin area, Italy. The topics addressed include the effects of integration on the traditionally dominant role of the medical profession, on relationships between professionals and managers and on work organization and interprofessional strains. The findings point to a more balanced role of medicine and other professions than before the policy reforms, and to a reconsideration of the managerialism–professionalism dichotomy, since professionals tend to capture managerial work and co-opt it into a new professionalism.