The professionals’ voice matters

Denmark and other European welfare states face changes in the organization of home care. Based on a cultural-theoretical and discourse-analytical approach, this article of a literature review analyzes the development of interdisciplinary teams in home care in Denmark (2017-2022), where home care has shifted from multidisciplinary, towards interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary. The article focuses on the importance of organization in teams for roles, professionalism, professional identity and collaboration of home care's various professionals. The cultural-theoretical and discourse-analytical exploration finds there have been profound changes in home care over a short period of time regarding centralization, decentralization, reforms and new ways of organizing home care shared between the state and municipalities. These interdisciplinary teams are seen politically and administratively as a solution to challenges such as more elderly and the shortage of professionals. Municipalities focus on professionals but not on the development of conditions and frameworks within their own forms of collaboration and organization. In the interdisciplinary teams, some professionals are designated new roles, tasks, and positions, while others relinquish them, and the role of some professionals is not even stated. This development is significant for the professionals' own experiences of their professionalism and professional identity. The new forms of collaboration affect the professionals: social and healthcare- helpers and assistants, nurses, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists differently. The literature review shows that the Dutch Buurtzorg- and the Swedish Västervik-models are emphasized. Both focus on citizens and not the expertise of professionals and changes within. The municipalities' inspirations and processes for reorganizing the international models seem inadequately explored. The article concludes with perspectives on the findings of the exploration, as well as what is lacking in turns of knowledge, and thus calls for further exploration; perspectives of relevance in Denmark and internationally to qualify the future development of the organization in home care