THE CARE MANAGEMENT INTERFACE WITH GENERAL-PRACTICE - A CASE-STUDY

This paper reports on a care management initiative at the interface of social work, general practice and district nursing. The aims were to describe the organizational factors, operational criteria and the view s of key managers, professionals and users of the care management pilo t based in general practice. A multi-method case study design was used . This comprised: retrospective analysis of general practitioner (GP) referrals to social services, reviews of case records of clients in th e care management system, and in-depth interviews with stakeholders, p rofessionals, users and carers. This paper focuses on the analysis of the referral information to social services and district nursing from general practice and the themes arising from the interview data such a s communication, referral pathways and professional role boundaries. T he views of users and carers are presented in terms of satisfaction wi th continuity, responsiveness and appropriateness of the assessment an d delivery of care. Although this care management pilot was discontinu ed when the funding ceased, the evaluation showed that there were bene fits in terms of improved understanding between general practitioners, social workers, and district nurses of working systems, procedures an d the organizational constraints of joint working.