Suchergebnisse

Na twaalf succesvolle internationale edities van het Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) georganiseerd door de universiteit van Illinois viel de eer voor de eerste Europese editie te beurt aan de Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (van 7 tot 10 februari 2017). De oudste universiteit van de Lage Landen (1425) en de nog oudere stad Leuven met zijn tot twee maal toe in ere herstelde universiteitsbibliotheek, pas gerenoveerde stadhuis, het Groot Begijnhof en de Oude Markt vormden het prachtige decor voor drie dagen presentaties, posters, symposia, workshops en paneldiscussies over kwalitatief onderzoek. Het straatbeeld van Leuven, dat doorgaans door studenten wordt gedomineerd, was opvallend leeg. Na enige navraag bleek de 'tentamenweek' de oorzaak te zijn voor het massaal op kot jagen van een derde van de stadspopulatie.

Background: Police officers and members of a mobile crisis team (MCT) are the two actors who respond to nuisance in Dutch society related to 'persons with confused behavior' and serious violent incidents. Their collaboration creates tension and dissatisfaction about roles and responsibilities. Aim: To explore the lived experiences of, and collaboration between, police officers and members of a MCT. Methods: A hermeneutic-phenomenological study with unstructured in-depth interviews of eight police officers and eight members of a MCT. Findings: The main findings in this study are that in the emergency care of 'persons with confused behavior' two very different professions are forced to work together, and that this collaboration is quite challenging. It becomes clear that different visions and expectations cause frustration in the collaboration. Police want the participation of the MCT as soon as possible after they are called in. The MCT wants to be easily accessible for police and can identify the great diversity of problems adequately but cannot solve all problems. There are shortcomings in adequate follow-up care provided by other health-care facilities. Conclusion: It turns out that it is extremely important for police officers that members of the MCT explain to them why a crisis assessment has a certain outcome. The exposed frictions and stagnation in the collaboration should be discussed openly as part of the process in order to acknowledge this and resolve it together. A recently started project called 'street triage', in which the police and MCT work together as one team and give a joint response, seems to remove a lot of the friction and stagnation. Further studies are needed to explore the effects of street triage by testing the validity of the hypothesis that street triage can close the gap between the two professions.