Lack of coordination

In 2017–2018, the Norwegian Board of Health Supervision carried out countrywide supervision of these services. All the Offices of the County Governors were involved in this supervision, which included both hospital services, municipal health and care services, and social services. This report provides a summary of supervision of municipal services for adults with concurrent addiction problems and mental health disorders.

The Offices of the County Governors found breaches of the legislation in two-thirds of the municipalities they investigated.

Service provision was found to be left to chance with little planning, and the services were not well coordinated. In many municipalities, the situation of the clients was not investigated in order to gain an overall picture of the challenges the clients faced, and the resources they had. In several places, there was little planning of service provision. Goals were not defined or measures were not implemented. Measures that were implemented were not often evaluated. Little attention was given to clients’ somatic health status. Clients were often not given adequate help to tackle their daily life.

Lack of coordination of services was identified in about one third of municipalities. The risk of something going wrong increases when people need services from several units and from services in other municipalities at the same time. Addiction problems and mental health disorders are often closely linked. Thus clients with both these problems are vulnerable when the services they are offered are not coordinated. Lack of a complete assessment, poorly planned provision of services and lack of coordination can make their situation worse rather than better.