Accessibility, clarity, and organizational opportunities to enhance interprofessional collaboration in alcohol interventions: A qualitative study

Abstract Background The implementation of effective interventions targeting problematic drinking in healthcare and social care remains limited, leading to fewer people changing their problematic drinking patterns. Improving interprofessional collaboration could enhance implementation of interventions targeting problematic drinking, yet a comprehensive understanding of interprofessional collaboration in the Netherlands regarding these interventions is currently lacking. This study set out to identify perceptions and experiences with interprofessional collaboration and the implementation of interventions targeting problematic drinking among professionals working in healthcare, social care and public sectors in a region of the Netherlands where problematic drinking is a known challenge. Methods Guided by a phenomenological perspective, we conducted a cross-sectional interview study with 22 professionals. Semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcripts were analysed for themes using Atlas.ti. Results Participants described their roles in interprofessional collaboration as minimalists (i.e., working strictly task oriented), brokers, or skilled networkers depending on their function and their perception of task and role fulfilment as a professional. Accessibility, clear role definitions, and leadership were identified as key to initiating and maintaining interprofessional collaboration. Challenges in interprofessional collaboration included regional, financial, or professional boundaries. Additionally, participants who were insiders of regional collaboration structures found these structures beneficial to interprofessional collaboration, while outsiders perceived them to be an impediment to collaboration and information exchange. Conclusions Interprofessional collaboration structures seem to enhance collaboration among professionals, and, as a result, enhance the implementation of interventions targeting problematic drinking. Management of healthcare, social care, or public sector organizations should recognize that outsider-organizations may have limited access to these structures. They should therefore appoint network-oriented professionals to act as brokers, linking external organizations to enhance collaboration and information exchange. Additionally, organizations should provide flexible scheduling for their professionals so that they can concentrate on tasks beyond their immediate responsibilities, which will contribute to interprofessional collaboration and early detection of problematic drinking. Lastly, further research on intervention implementation should focus on expertise-development within teams to improve interprofessional collaboration, and consider how the perspectives of populations at risk for problematic drinking can be incorporated into collaboration-structures.