Why do family doctors (not) signal? Opportunities and limitations of the collaboration between family doctors and social service providers

Public health and social welfare subsystems are principally linked together by mutual interests in the basic care of elderly people. Family doctor services are part of the social information system that promotes revealing unfulfilled needs. On the other hand, taking the needful into social care would make the work of family doctors considerably easier. As a consequence, family doctors' signalling should be a general practice everywhere. But social workers experience the contrary. In order to explain the difference between the unity of interest in principle, and the weak collaboration in reality, a theoretical model was elaborated and tested empirically. The authors found that social service providers' preferences are not evident for family doctors, therefore, their willingness to advise depends on their opportunity of obtaining information.