Working Across Professional Boundaries: Primary Health Care and Social Care

Effective joint working between health and local authorities, and between health, social services and housing professionals, has long been recognized as vital to the provision of 'seamless' services for the most vulnerable members of society. Unfortunately, the history of formal joint working over the past 20 years has been largely a poor one. In this article the authors outline the findings from a recent study of working alliances across the primary health care/social care boundary. They examine how obstacles are being overcome and how, in some localities, the essential ingredients of inter-professional and inter-organizational trust are leading to the improved integration of services.