Shared care involves the establishment of partnerships between professionals and laymen in which they share a common goal. Examples are an improvement in the health of a patient where there is
patient empowerment to take a major degree of responsibility care and arrangements in which the life of a disadvantaged person is improved by the joint efforts of a
social service and an outside lay provider. In truly shared care, the partnership is a genuinely equal one with neither partner being subservient or superior.
Shared care is a term largely used in
health care
Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...
and
social care in
Great Britain.
In general health care
In a more mainstream health-orientated context, the term can be used for the schemes involving
patient empowerment that are targeted at medical problems as
substance abuse
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods which are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder. Differing definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, ...
and
diabetes. While generally welcomed, shared care approaches can raise concerns about what is expected from different individuals and, for healthcare professionals, the consequent legal implications of changes in liability.
In complementary medicine
In
complementary medicine, the term can be used for such therapies as
hypnosis or
Alexander Technique in which the therapist is an enabler rather than a
paternalistic prescriber (Alexander Technique practitioners even call themselves "teachers").
In social care of children
Shared care is used in a social context to describe the activities of organisations that provide short breaks for disadvantaged children or those helping to enlist families for short term fostering. In each case, there is significant input from the nonprofessional supervised by the professional. The practice is widespread with examples throughout the country of this usage, with clients from all age groups and types of disabilities or social problems.
The
Child Support Agency
The Child Support Agency (CSA) was a delivery arm of the Department for Work and Pensions (Child Maintenance Group) in Great Britain and the former Department for Social Development in Northern Ireland. Launched on 5 April 1993, the CSA was to ...
uses the term for a very specific purpose: "it refers to each of the separated parents having the children with them part of the time, so that direct expenditure is shared too."
A shared care order in relation to the care of children has the same meaning as a
shared residency order.
[Warren H.]
Shared Care Orders
Hawkins Family Law, published 17 May 2019, accessed 16 July 2021
See also
*
Coproduction (public services)
References
{{Social work
Healthcare in the United Kingdom
Social care in the United Kingdom