Vocational rehabilitation, interagency collaboration and social representations.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to describe and analyse two important dimensions of vocational rehabilitation for disadvantaged groups and persons with disabilities: interagency collaboration and social representations. PARTICIPANTS: Four focus group discussions were conducted. The participants were 20 officials of various agencies who had taken part in collaboration projects in vocational rehabilitation.
METHODS: Qualitative content analysis was used for the analysis. The material was categorised and central themes identified.
RESULTS: Three themes emerged: 'Collaboration Process', 'Other Agencies' and 'Object for Collaboration'. The results indicate that interagency collaboration is very important in vocational rehabilitation, but that there are a number of obstacles to smooth collaboration. The professionals of the different agencies shared social representations to a great extent. Working with people with psychiatric disorders is especially challenging, and conflicts tended to arise between the projects and the home organisations.
CONCLUSIONS: Recognition of others' knowledge and respectfulness toward other professions facilitated vocational rehabilitation and the interagency collaboration process. The agencies' lack of flexibility increased the risk of conflicts as attempts were made to integrate the new working methods developed within the projects into the ordinary activities of the agencies.