Public and private psychiatry: can they work together and is it worth the effort?

Abstract

A number of barriers to public sector clinicians and private psychiatrists collaborating in shared care arrangements were identified. The two groups surveyed identified similar barriers. Some of these can potentially be addressed by changes to service systems. Others require cultural shifts in both sectors. Improved communications including more opportunities for formal and informal meetings between people working in the two sectors would be likely to improve the understanding of the complementary sector's perspective and practice. Further changes would be expected to require careful work between the sectors on training, employment and practice protocols and initiatives, to allow better use of the existing services and resources.

Patterns of admission to acute psychiatric in-patient facilities: a national survey in Italy

“…with higher BPRS and PSP scores) and more frequently diagnosed with non-affective psychoses or manic episodes. The presence of less severe (and probably less disturbing) patients in private facilities can lead some patients to choose these facilities in consideration of less stigma and of a more quiet milieu, but there may also be a selection bias because professionals working in the private sector perceive themselves as having greater expertise in treating disorders other than psychoses (Yung et al 2006).…”

Understanding leadership roles and competencies for public-private partnership

“…As such, effective partnership relationship must exist at all hierarchical levels of both organisations at all time. Also, PPP project leaders are expected to deal with value differences (Dowling et al, 2004;Yung et al, 2005), mutual interdependencies (Mohr and Spekman, 1994;Ramadass et al, 2018) and the temporary nature of both the "project" (Clarke, 2012b) and the "collaboration" (Huxham and Vangen, 2000b) that characterises PPP arrangement while, at the same time, facilitating various success factors needed for effective project performance (Meredith and Mantel, 2009). In doing so, as a collaborative setting, a PPP requires leaders with a facilitator role rather than one based on exercising formal authority over others (Bussu and Bartels, 2014).…”

“…Also, as certain competencies are only suitable in certain situations, leaders must have the relevant competency to accommodate multiple differences in ever-changing situations. Likewise, as a PPP setting consists of two parties which are interdependent but nonetheless different in terms of values, work cultures and objectives (Yung et al, 2005), PPP leaders must be able to inspire members to act in ways that will create the necessary PPP work culture, i.e. collaboration (Bussu and Bartels, 2014), and members should reciprocate accordingly because its absence will hinder the progress of any collaborative effort (Singaravelloo, 2010;Trangkanont and Charoenngam, 2014).…”

“…Words such as "relationship management", "engage", "close the gap" and "facilitate" are related to collaborative leadership in that to ensure the success of PPP projects, the public and private sectors must work together while sorting out their cultural differences and barriers (Yung et al, 2005). A collaborative leadership style involves being open, exchanging information and understanding differences to reach solutions that are acceptable to all parties (Kaimal et al, 2017).…”

Improving Collaboration Between Private Psychiatrists, the Public Mental Health Sector and General Practitioners: Evaluation of the Partnership Project

“…Good collaboration between private psychiatrists and other elements of the mental health sector (including state-funded mental health services, general practitioners [GPs] and non-government organizations) [1], is in everybody's best interests. At present, it is limited by several barriers including differences in financial incentives, service cultures and treatment approaches, as well as communication difficulties, lack of clarity regarding roles and responsibilities and varying perceptions of others' expertise [2], [3]. There is increasing concern that this suboptimal collaboration can militate against positive outcomes for consumers and carers, although this has not been well studied empirically [4], [5].…”