Health care and social welfare in cooperation

The report presents: I) the frames and the reasons for the interrelation and cooperation between social welfare and health care in Finland, 2) the actual research on linkages between municipal social welfare and primary health care service delivery systems. and 3) assessments upon the outcome of cooperation. The report is a part of the international project "Primary Health Care: Cooperation between health and welfare personnel" initiated by the European Centre for Social Welfare Training and Research (ECSW) The expansion of health and welfare services has made it difficult to overview these fields of official responsibility. This is one reason for the demands on cooperation and delegation of authority in the hands of the executive staffs. Another argument in favour of cooperation between social welfare and health care is the fact that many functions are overlapping. The report brings forth empirical evidence of the cooperation networks of the social service and health care personnel. Thereby the key roles in respect of collaboration are revealed. The evaluation of the need of cooperation is related to the degree of crystallization of the professional role. Hence, the social welfare personnel expresses a stronger desire for contacts with the health care delivery systems than do the professionals of health care.