Facilitating integrated delivery of services across organisational boundaries: essential enablers to integration

Introduction Integrating services is a key tenet to developing services across the United Kingdom. While many aspects of integration have been explored, how to facilitate integration of services remains unclear. Method An exploratory qualitative study was undertaken in 2015 to explore occupational therapists' perceptions on integrating service provision across health and social care organisational boundaries. The views of practitioners who had experienced integration were sought on a range of aspects of integrating services. This paper focuses on the facilitators for delivering integration and the essential enablers are identified. Findings Numerous factors were noted to facilitate integration and three essential enablers were highlighted. Leadership, communication and joint education were recognised as playing a central role in integrating services across organisational boundaries; without these three essential enablers, integration is liable to fail. Conclusion Integration is a process rather than an event; continued emphasis will be required on leadership, communication and joint education to progress integration achievements made to date.