Family centres are engaged in multidisciplinary collaboration

Text and picture: Teija Varis

Family Centre Series: Part 3.

What is multidisciplinary cooperation, what does it mean in the daily work of family centre employees, and how does it benefit the clients? Hanna Mäntynen, neuropsychologist at the Lohja family centre, and supervisor Saija Saario will explain.  

According to Hanna Mäntynen and Saija Saario, multidisciplinary cooperation is first and foremost visible in the operations of the Lohja family centre Purje in the fact that all employees know the service system as a whole.

“For me as a neuropsychologist, it means that I understand what preventive family work or home services have to offer and how these measures are implemented,” Mäntynen gives an example.   

In practice, multidisciplinary cooperation means close communications between employees and joint planning for clients who want or need a multidisciplinary approach.  

“It is essential that we do not think about our services in silos when partaking in multidisciplinary cooperation. Instead, we must consider the whole of the client’s needs and wishes together with professionals in different fields. Research has shown that multidisciplinary cooperation is efficient for the client and also produces results,” Mäntynen explains.

Saija Saario adds that in practice, multidisciplinary cooperation is work carried out close to the client.

“It starts when the client steps through the doors of the family centre and explains their needs. At that point, it is our job to identify which services within the family centre would benefit the client. We will sit down with the client and consider where to start, which service to use and how to move forward. The goal is for the client to always know what is going on and who handles their case.”

Mäntynen points out that there are still plenty of clients who have a clear need for only one service.

“In that case, there is naturally no need for multidisciplinary cooperation.”

Mäntynen and Saario mention that clients have given positive feedback on multidisciplinary cooperation.   

“We have heard that clients feel like everything have gone smoothly and that they have received the help they need. The cooperation has worked smoothly in the right place at the right time, and the clients have encountered no obstacles when using services,” Saario describes.

“This involves the clients’ experience of being heard. It allows employees to form an in‑depth understanding of the client’s situation. One of the basic ideas of social welfare and health care is that working together yields good results,” Mäntynen adds.  

According to Mäntynen and Saario, the Western Uusimaa Wellbeing Services County is committed to a systemic approach to work. What’s that?

“It is a human and family-oriented way of thinking, providing help with any needs clients and families may have at any given time. Multidisciplinary work is intertwined with this way of thinking and type of action,” Saario explains.

Although the wellbeing services county is under pressure to save money and the economic situation is tight, multidisciplinary work is a value judgment made by the wellbeing services county.

“I believe that we all must keep calm and think clearly. This includes both the grassroots and the management. We must keep in mind that a multidisciplinary, or horizontal, approach to work is in line with our values, productive and perceived as good by our clients, and that we are committed to it,” Mäntynen says.

“In the beginning, multidisciplinary cooperation can be time-consuming, but once we come together and achieve shared understanding of the client’s situation, I can say that, based on my own experiences, the approach ends up saving time,” Saario continues.

“At the same time, it provides an in-depth understanding of the client’s situation and also focusses your work on the essentials,” Mäntynen adds.

Saario also highlights positive experiences with parties outside the wellbeing services county.

“We have had very good experiences when cooperating with municipal actors. Especially actors in early childhood education and care and basic education are among our vital partners, as they are close to the everyday life of children, young people and families. We organise group activities and events for families that use both municipal services and our services. We want to continue cooperating in the future.”

The future looks bright to the employees of the Lohja family centre. But the world isn’t quite ready yet.

“My vision for the future includes the promotion of digitalisation. It is good that a digital family centre is already under development. From the client’s viewpoint, I think it will be great for families to be able to contact us electronically and take their matters in their own hands even better than now,” Saario says.

“I believe that in the future, we will have a great opportunity to follow paths guided by our values and carry out multidisciplinary work. We have been trained for this, and the systemic approach to work serves as our framework. The importance of our work is taken into account, and now our task is to implement and maintain a work approach that is in line with the wellbeing services county’s values,” Mäntynen concludes.

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This article is part of our series on family centres. In this series, we will explore the services and activities that Western Uusimaa family centres offer to families with children.