[Experience of cooperative groups--annual report 1988. From the project Evaluation of follow-up of long-term sick leave patients].

: According to the annual reports for 1988, which all local insurance offices were instructed to send to the National Insurance Administration, interprofessional cooperation groups were regarded as a positive initiative. Only a few local offices were sceptical to the cooperation, due to local circumstances, lack of resources, or other reasons. The reports' main tendency was as expected; most of those who had their case treated in a cooperation group belonged to prognosis group B, i.e. when reeducation/rehabilitation is relevant in addition to medical treatment. The majority of the patients had been certified sick for more than 20 weeks and usually it was the local insurance office that submitted the case to the cooperation group. Local circumstances influenced the interprofessional cooperation. The labour market, communications, the location of the offices of the different professions in relation to each other, as well as clients' and group members' personal qualities led to different expressions of the cooperation from municipality to municipality and influenced the results of the work in the interprofessional cooperation groups.