Coordination in Maltese community care

Abstract

This study was an attempt to capture how and in what ways coordination is present in services that are offered in Malta, for enhancing community care. Therefore, the main target was to highlight the main issues, found in the literature review, which lead to better coordination. Then, the major task was to see whether these criteria were present or not within the agencies providing services for the community. To illustrate such issues, in-depth interviews were conducted for every service in the community that mainly cater for the elderly people. Also, questionnaires were then sent to social workers and general practitioners, who operate in other sectors of the community, such as with people with disability or with those suffering from mental illness. This was done so as to have a much more general idea of coordination in Community Care; hence, obtaining a much wider view through further probing. The research showed proof that in the majority of the cases the issues for good coordination, highlighted in the literature review, were present. Consequently, this shows evidence that some type of inter-coordination is present within the services. The most difficult point to establish was to state to what extent coordination was present. Moreover, it was illustrated (during the interviews and also in the questionnaires) that there is a lack of intra-coordination among the agencies providing services for the community. Apparently, there is no form of coordination among the services, except from referrals of cases.