Olika riktlinjer och krav - vem ska gå utanför ramen? : En kvalitativ studie om handläggares upplevelse av arbetet och samverkan kring äldre med psykisk ohälsa

Sammanfattning: Previous studies show that elderly people with mental illness tend not to have their needs met due to lack of interaction between authorities (Grundberg, Hansson, Religa & Hillerås 2016). The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate what care managers in social psychiatry and elderly care experience affect their work and collaboration between them. In this way, we want to create a deeper understanding of how work and collaboration affect the care of older people with mental illness. This qualitative study is based on semi-structured interviews with six care managers. We have used a thematic analysis to analyze our empirical material. Through transcription and reading of the empirical material, we have highlighted quotations that have identified repetitions, similarities and differences that have since shaped themes. Furthermore, the material was analyzed based on theories of collaboration (Danermark & Kullberg 1999; Grape 2015) and Lipsky's street level bureaucracy. Our study shows that care managers feel that collaboration is a prerequisite for being able to meet the needs of elderly people with mental illness, but opinions differ on whether the support needs of the target group are actually met. Collaboration between social psychiatry and elderly care is generally perceived to work well, even though our results show some contradictions to this claim. Finally, the study shows that collaboration and social work is influenced by various factors such as proximity and distance, as well as laws and guidelines and knowledge about these. These factors affect the care manager's room for manoeuvre and professional identity, which is also perceived to affect the possibilities for collaboration. Collaboration, room for manoeuvre and professional identity seem to be related and through interaction all parts form a whole.