Quotes illustrating themes
| Theme | Representative quotes |
|---|---|
| 1. Creating new perspectives on care for multimorbidity by sharing knowledge, skills and attitudes | You see what the other people are thinking of — the different styles. (Psych 06) It just validates that there’s a lot of different perspectives to look at. …. So I think it educates the group in that way and models this need to think of what different things are going on. (Psych 06) There’s an added value by far … because [the patients] have multiple things going on, social, functional, cognitive, medical. It really is useful having that full interdisciplinary team for these particular patients. (Geri 04) When I get the case summary and then I hear input from an internist or a family doctor — oh wow, that was interesting! I wonder why that hadn’t been addressed or that’s a wrinkle I certainly didn’t think of before. (Psych 05) I think the greatest benefit is that, because we’re all sitting down together at the same table, we can talk about how these things interact and intersect. So, for example, pharmacy can talk about adverse drug interactions that may be contributing to mental illness or making it worse. And then together with social work at the table we can all comment on how we think this is impacting activities of daily living. (GIM 09) I think there’s something synergistic about having all those people together, and you can build on each other’s thoughts and possible avenues. (FP 02) You really need people who have the skills in their discipline at a very high level. (GIM 13) |
| 2. Moving away from a consultant model to an interprofessional team model | I think the family doctors feel very well respected by the specialists, and the specialists are always very supportive in terms of giving ideas that could be readily implemented in primary care. (FP 01) It takes a special kind of consultant to do this because you’re not examining the patient. You can’t get a very traditional specialist to do this, because they’re really used to having all the i’s dotted and the t’s crossed. (FP 14) I’m not going to have everything done as beautifully as I want, but these patients wouldn’t have been able to easily get to my clinic otherwise. And if I can provide a little bit of help and support, then at least I’m getting the patient moving in the right direction. (Geri 04) An internist would want to label a disease, and with this disease comes an investigation and a treatment that is doctor-driven, evidence-base–driven. Whereas with [the TIP Program], it’s completely turned around. The treatment, the drug, the investigation will be driven by what the patient wants. (GIM 10) |
| 3. Opportunities for learners | Very few people know how to do interprofessional care; not professionals performing side-by-side, but actually interprofessionally. … Often what’s called interprofessional is not; it’s still parallel play. (GIM 13) These trainees in ambulatory care need to be in the community, need to be on interprofessional teams. That’s the way of dealing with these very complex patients. (FP 14) Whether you are a social work student, a medical student, a psychology student, [the TIP Program] allows you to foster that model of interdisciplinary care. (Psych 06) |
Note: FP = family physician, GIM = general internal medicine, Geri = geriatrician, Psych = psychiatrist.