Relationality: Strengthening health and social care collaboration through the power of relationships

Hong Kong faces one of its greatest challenges in meeting the needs of an ageing population. This has created great demand for health and social care systems. Meeting the complex needs of older people requires effective collaboration between health and social care professionals within interdisciplinary teams. In Hong Kong, some community-based care serviceshave adopted a multidisciplinary approach to support older people to ensure ageing in place. Although the development of interdisciplinary collaboration between health and social care has increased in recent years, it is still at an early stage in Hong Kong. Some health and social care professionals experience difficulties with interdisciplinary collaboration. Such collaboration has proved ineffective when communication barriers, incompatible professional cultures and institutional barriers prevent interdisciplinary collaboration.
Many factors affect collaborative practices, and communication barriers have been identified in most previous studies. In Hong Kong, there is a lack of in-depth studies exploring the influence of interprofessional communication on collaborative practices. The underlying mechanisms that promote interdisciplinary collaboration remain poorly understood. This study will examine the factors facilitating interprofessional communication and interdisciplinary collaboration in the Integrated Home Care Services (IHCS) and the Enhanced Home and Community Care Services (EHCCS).
Conceptually, this study will be informed by the theory of relationality, theory of relational coordination and concepts of collaborative practice A mixed-methods research design will be adopted to achieve the following objectives, to: (1) understand communication patterns in interprofessional relationships in IHCS and EHCCS; (2) explore awareness, perceptions and attitudes of health and social care professionals about interprofessional communication and interdisciplinary collaboration, and (3) examine how different relational factors influence interprofessional communication and interdisciplinary collaboration among health and social care professionals.
An online survey will be employed to identify communication patterns by measuring the relationship ties between health and social care professionals within the collaborative processes. Individual semi-structured interviews will be conducted with social workers, nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dietitians and speech therapists to explore different professionals’ awareness, perceptions and attitudes about interprofessional communication and interdisciplinary collaboration and examine how these are influenced by relational factors.
This study will contribute a new insight into interdisciplinary collaboration by incorporating relational elements into the interprofessional work process. Findings from the study will underscore the importance of relationality in developing services, professional education and training, and policy.