Health Policy 119 (2015) 1–8 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Health Policy journa l h om epa ge: www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol Working towards integrated community care for older people: Empowering organisational features from a professional perspective Bienke M. Janssen a,b,∗ , Miranda W.C. Snoeren b , Tine Van Regenmortel c , Tineke A. Abma d a Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Department of Social Studies, Eindhoven, The Netherlands b Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Department of Nursing/Bachelor of Applied Gerontology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands c Catholic University Leuven, Faculty of Social Sciences and Research Institute for Labour and Society (HIVA), Leuven, Belgium d VU University Medical Center, Department of Medical Humanities, EMGO Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 14 August 2013 Received in revised form 26 September 2014 Accepted 29 September 2014 Keywords: Integrated care Older people Long-term community care Multidisciplinary teams Multidisciplinary cooperation Organisational reform Organisational empowerment a b s t r a c t Although multi-disciplinary cooperation between professionals is a prerequisite to provide integrated care in the community, this seems hard to realise in practice. Yet, little is known about the experiences of professionals who implement it nor about the organisational fea- tures professionals identify as empowering during this cooperation process. Therefore, a case study of a multi-disciplinary geriatric team was performed. The data-collection included observations of meetings, in-depth interviews and focus groups with professionals (N = 12). Data were analysed inductively and related to the three organisational levels within the model of organisational empowerment of Peterson and Zimmerman. Signs of empow- ering organisational features on the intraorganisational level were mutual trust and clear working routines. On the interorganisational level important features included improved linkages between participating organisations and increased insight into each other’s tasks. Tensions occurred relating to the inter- and the extraorganisational level. Professionals felt that the commitment of the management of involved organisations should be improved just as the capacity of the team to influence (local) policy. It is recommended that poli- cymakers should not determine the nature of professional cooperation in advance, but to leave that to the local context as well as to the judgement of involved professionals. © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The last decades, there has been a growing attention to improve and reform care for older people with integrated care and empowerment as key concepts. ∗ Corresponding author at: Fontys University of Applied Sciences, Department of Nursing/Bachelor of Applied Gerontology, P.O. Box 347, 5600 AH Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 8850 76568. E-mail address: bienke.janssen@fontys.nl (B.M. Janssen). Diverse stakeholders emphasise the importance of a strong and integrated primary care as older people liv- ing at home often face complex, multi-facetted problems that cannot be resolved by one professional alone [1–6]. Furthermore, the integration of care is regarded as an important means to support vulnerable people in their own empowerment process [7–9]. In order to stimulate approaches for integrated com- munity care, a variety of organisational structures are set up in different western countries [10] in which profession- als cooperate in networks of interdisciplinary care services http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.healthpol.2014.09.016 0168-8510/© 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.