PurposeThe aim of this article is to study the coordination of comprehensive services for clients with concurrent substance abuse and mental health disorders (dual diagnosis), which is a very complex client group. In order to achieve comprehensive care and treatment, the service providers need to cooperate and coordinate, but the questions here, are how this is done and how appropriate the coordination is.Data and methodsData were collected from group interviews during a 1-day workshop with clients, relatives, and employees from the various services involved.ResultsInformation exchange between the services was generally in writing. Coordination between substance abuse and mental health services was experienced as fragmented. Employees had an unclear perception of the work and expertise of the other service providers involved. There were examples of disparity between the services a municipality could offer and client needs. A coordinator, if available, was emphasized by both clients and service providers as serving an important function in coordination and relationship building.ConclusionPredominantly written communication and unclear division of responsibilities and duties resulted in employees creating stereotypes of each other, both within specialist health services and between specialist and municipal health services. A coordinator was able to coordinate various inputs, often through informal contact, with a view to establishing appropriate services for individual clients. Coordination in interagency meeting points, such as “responsibility teams”, was the most successful solution, but this will involve a greater degree of networking than is common today.

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In this article, my contention is that Norway's criminal justice policy is increasingly based on principles taken from positive criminology. This means that the correctional service places strong emphasis on establishing collaboration with the local authorities (the municipalities) in order to offer convicted persons integrated services, both during and after serving their sentences. I also point out that positive criminology's principle of viewing convicted persons as unique individuals with individual problems and resources -problems to which there are rarely clear-cut solutions -means that these problems are perceived as 'wicked problems'. A recommended approach to 'wicked problems' is to establish collaboration between the different service providers involved. The article describes the experiences gained from a pilot project that entailed offering a training programme to convicted persons with substance abuse problems. One of the goals of the project was to link the programme to an offer of integrated services after the sentence had been served. The experiences described in semistructured interviews with 16 convicted persons, seven correctional service employees and three local authority employees was that it was difficult to put in place such an integrated service package. On this basis, I discuss the reasons why it was so difficult to achieve the desired collaboration, and I outline some proposals for how these challenges can be resolved in future.

This article addresses questions about health authorities’ recommendations on the local organisation of services for people with mental health disorders in Norway. Analysis is made of the dynamic relationship between different evaluations, national guidelines and other knowledge that influence the organisation of services. The analysis is based upon documents about how recommendations by health authorities have shifted during a period of 15 years. The relationship between policy guidelines, the role of scientific evidence and practical organisational models is characterised by ambiguity and pragmatism. Some theoretical implications of these findings and uses of knowledge in different policy areas are discussed.

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