Integration and Coordination of Care and Social Services as a Responsible Way of Handling Psychiatric Disability

This chapter is part of a research project that focuses on the management and coordination of patient care processes in the field of mental health. It analyzes the role and responsibility of health structures, not only in the specific treatment of targeted pathologies but also in the comprehensive and societal consideration of the patient’s needs. Addressing the challenge of the comprehensive consideration of the patient’s needs goes beyond the creation of networks of experts and independent key players. Indeed, mental health pathologies are among the most complex diseases, especially because they are multi-symptomatic and often become chronic. According to the World Health Organization (Combler les lacunes en Santé mentale, Programme d’Action, p. 48, 2010), mental illness is the third most prevalent disease and is responsible for one quarter of all disabilities. This means that the social and economic stakes are important and that combined responsibilities of the stakeholders in this field are key to society. Indeed, the social stake is huge, first from the human point of view toward patients and their families, and second in terms of costs and consequences for communities. The starting point for the problem is coordination and integration of social and medical activities (such as social, health, psychological, educational, professional, dietetic, ergonomic, actions, etc.), which can improve the efficiency of the patient’s care. This chapter shows that, in order to be efficient, coordination and integration need to be implemented along with two other key elements: case management and empowerment. The set of these four concepts in the field of mental health is called the “ICCE framework.”