Professionellas samverkan inom missbruks- och ätstörningsvården

Sammanfattning: Previous research describes co-morbid substance use disorders and eating disorders as a complex issue. Research on collaboration between Swedish addiction treatment facilities and Swedish eating disorder care is scarce. The aim of this Bachelor thesis is to analyze and understand how professionals in addiction care and professionals in eating disorder care experience collaboration regarding people with comorbid substance use disorders and eating disorders. The approach of this study is hermeneutic. The bio-psycho-social model and Collaboration Theory are used for data analysis. The data consists of nine semi-structured interviews with professionals working in either regional eating disorder care or municipal addiction care or in an independent addiction treatment facility. The informants work in different Swedish municipalities and regions having varying occupations. Some work in social services, others in medical care. Our results show varying experiences of collaboration among the informants. Some informants think collaboration works well whilst others see room for improvement. Poor collaboration is described by some informants as due to organizational prestige or bureaucracy. Some informants emphasize that referrals between different care units lead to long wait times for the patients/clients during which nobody takes responsibility for the patient, whose health may worsen. The professionals use different strategies, treatments, and methods to treat and recognize comorbidity and to collaborate with other care units. Joint care planning, reaching a consensus and having a holistic viewpoint are methods that the informants use. The informants have different views on which disorder that precedes the other, and also on which treatment is best suited for this type of comorbidity. Several professionals believe that the addiction should be treated primarily. According to the professionals, prerequisites for collaboration are: established contact with other collaborative parties, the knowledge and accessibility of other professionals, patient consent and motivation. An exchange of knowledge at an organisational level is requested, regarding subjects such as collaboration and comorbidity.