Will municipal health and social care become more person-centred after a training initiative?

Person-centered care is an established concept in regional health care, but knowledge about what it means to work in a person-centered way or how this can potentially increase in municipal care and social services is lacking. This project follows the implementation of a web-based training to increase person-centeredness in a municipality:

The City of Helsingborg has decided to train all its health and social care staff in person-centeredness through an online course followed by discussions. The aim of the training initiative is to build an understanding and consensus around person-centeredness among managers and employees at all levels within the municipality. The training initiative begins with a course for the managers, who then take the material home and discuss the content within their staff groups. The staff undergo the online training "Steg för steg till en personcentrerad Nära vård med Hans-Inge Persson" (in Swedish, Step by step to a person-centred integrated care with Hans-Inge Persson) and then discuss within their respective staff groups how person-centeredness can be translated into practice. Written reflections are compiled on how they collectively and individually assess that they can work in a person-centered way in their own operations.

The municipality's implementation is part of their regular operational development. Such an implementation can, however, contribute knowledge about both the implementation process and the consequences of the change. The implementation is followed through companion research, ie., the researchers have nothing to do with the decision to implement the training (the intervention) or how it is introduced.

The University of Gothenburg Centre for Person-centred Care has been asked to follow the training initiative because knowledge about implementing person-centered care in practice, outside of clinical trials, is very limited. The aim of the research project is thus to study the implementation of a web-based training on person-centeredness in municipal care and social services; how it is adopted and changes the operations, affects the staff's work, and impacts users. Below are two aims and related questions that guide the implementation of the research project:

1. To develop the method for evaluating person-centeredness in municipal health and social care.

a. How person-centered are different types of municipal care, according to managers, staff, and users?

b. Can existing and revised questionnaires about person-centeredness be used in all parts of municipal services?

c. Can available instruments show relevant changes in person-centeredness in this type of services, among staff and/or users?

2. To investigate if and how the training initiative affects person-centeredness in municipal care and social services.

a. How do the operations translate the web-based training in person-centeredness into the various parts of municipal care and social services?

b. Can the training initiative affect person-centeredness in municipal care and social services, according to managers, staff, and users?

c. How does the organization and cooperation between operations get affected by the training initiative?

A previous study that will be used as inspiration is the follow-up research conducted on the implementation of more person-centered care in Region Dalarna, but the municipal level was not included in that project. Additionally, experience and basis for evaluating person-centeredness in municipal services are drawn from the Gothenburg Region, which is relevant to parts of the services provided by the City of Helsingborg.

The research project has been approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Ref. No. 2024-04688-01).