Page 177 - Demo

General discussion1757Practitioners believe that effective collaboration on different levels may reduce MH problems, decrease practitioners’ work pressure, and prevent more intensive forms of MH care, in some cases (Chapters 2 and 6). In addition, inter-professional collaboration around a specific patient or patient group can lead to a more general exchange of knowledge and increased awareness of the possibilities and limitations of other professionals regarding the care needed, and can be helpful in addressing the challenges in providing care across domains. 61The challenges in effective domain-transcending collaborative care Domain-transcending collaborative care presents a wide variety of challenges that relate partly to issues commonly encountered in primary MH care, including limited capacity in MH services and fragmentation of service delivery when complex MH problems are involved. 56 But patients with MID present additional challenges. Discussing all challenges is too extensive, so I limit myself to those that emerged particularly in the studies in this thesis as being extra relevant for people with MID (Chapters 2, 5, and 6) and provide examples of some best practices to address them.The first challenge lies in finding the right collaborative partners. Practitioners indicate that their regular professional network falls short when they want to organize additional care and support for patients with MID and MH problems, especially regarding non-medical problems (Chapter 6). An up-todate regional network for patients with (M)ID could be helpful in this matter. A successful example of such a network approach is a so-called ‘Wally’ in the Dutch Deventer care region. 62 A Wally is a social worker who serves as a designated point of contact for practitioners and is available for all patients. Wally is easily approachable by the practitioner and collaborates with the patient to explore support options for psychosocial problems. Although this person is not specifically focused on people with MID, in practice a Wally does offer possibilities for this patient group. A second challenge lies in bridging long waiting times after referral to MH care or ID care (Chapters 5 and 6). 56 Practitioners indicate that, in some cases, formal referral could be prevented if they had the opportunity to consult a psychiatrist or ID physician at short notice. Additionally, this could Katrien Pouls sHL.indd 175 24-06-2024 16:26