COIN (Community-Oriented Integration Network) is a network of friends concerned with developing Community-Oriented Integrated Practice (COIP) - multi-disciplinary collaboration for health and care in local areas. COIP is described in a Health Matters paper: www.healthmatters.org.uk/Library/coip_0322.pdf. It has implications for Education, Politics, Research and Community Development as well as for Healthcare.

Health Matters - http://www.healthmatters.org.uk - is the partner magazine for COIN. It posts blogs of about 700 words, including summaries of COIN Meetings from which come increasing understanding of the potential of COIP. Authors are encouraged to develop their blogs into full papers for publications in other journals.

COIN has members in different countries. Meetings are held in English. It meets nine times a year, usually the last Tuesday of Jan, Feb, March; May, June, July; Sept, Oct, Nov. So, it misses Aug, Dec and April. Meetings are usually held at 20.00-21.30 London time; which is often also a convenient time for members from the Americas and Antipodes.

We edit COIN Meetings into videos that we post on the COIN YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@coin1562.

Themes for the year and focus for the month emerge from discussions and interests of COIN members. All relate to some aspect of Community-Oriented Integrated Practice. COIN mostly exerts influence through individual members and similar-minded organisations although it does at times support the development of new initiatives. 

Themes dominate COIN attention for a while, then change. In 2022 the theme was End of Life (EOL) Care - www.doi.org/10.12968/bjcn.2022.27.9.432. One outcome of this is a developing pilot Course to help EOL Carers to facilitate Healthy Deaths (people particularly recognise the need to collaborate in the EOL context).

In 2023 the need for general practitioners to lead local integration emerged as a theme, discussing a Client-centred model of care; the Nature of relationships between primary care practitioners and their patients; and the Potential of End of Life Care to model COIP.

Here are some of the topics that COIN might explore in the future:

• Perspectives about COIP from different generalist, Community-Based Practitioners - Nurses, Social Workers, Holistic Practitioners, Pharmacists, Schools, Undertakers…..

• Perspectives about COIP from different specialist disciplines that relate to health and social care in some ways - Specialist Medical Practitioners, Public Health, Primary Care Networks, Integrated Care Boards, Politicians….

• The role of Music to facilitate Health and Social Unity at local level.

• Revise Medical School curricula for students to learn how to develop COIP in different contexts, including collaboration for End-of-Life Care.

• Explore lessons from Prisons about developing meaningful, healthy life stories and incremental transformation of whole systems.

• Explore ways in which schools can promote understanding of COIP.

If you wish to be on the COIN mailing list or propose a topic to explore, please email one the authors of this blog. If you wish to have a more active role, we do need people to help with things like blog-writing, video-making, administration and supporting other COIN members who need support of some kind.

Authors:

Paul Thomas: FRCGP. MD. Carer. Author - Collaborating for Health, 2018, Routledge. Pthomas300006@gmail.com 

Laura Calamos: PhD, APRN, FHEA. Family Nurse Practitioner. lcphdfnp@gmail.com

Lucy Kwapisiewicz: COIN Coordinator. Head of Committee Services at British Society of Gastroenterology. lucja.kwapisiewicz@gmail.com  

Chris Brophy: Solicitor. Director of Resolving Together Ltd. chris@resolvingtogether.com. 

Linda Lang: PhD. Educationalist. prof.lindalang@gmail.com