The health centre as a location for care management

This paper examines the case for locating care management in health centres. Two related arguments are advanced. It is argued, firstly, that the close association between the health and social needs of dependent groups makes a multidisciplinary approach to community care essential. Secondly, it is suggested that the coordination of health and social care provision and the achievement of a seamless service would be achieved most readily in a setting which combined all of the main health and social care providers in one location. Other advantages include the potential contribution of general practitioners as case finders under the terms of the new GP contract and the fact that the introduction of care management to health centres would facilitate the mounting of experiments with different models of care management, particularly those involving a multiple worker approach.