Extending the scope of integrated support systems: A process of “totalizing” the experience of social care ?

In order to make up for the “gaps” in the supply of care in social and health institutions and the failures of the care offered there, we have witnessed over the past fifteen years the proliferation of micro-systems that are supposed to provide individualized responses to meet users’ needs. The undesired effects of the multiplication of actors involved in a situation (e.g., lack of coordination) have then given rise to the establishment of integrated support systems capable of guaranteeing continuity and coherence of care.After briefly recalling the context of the shift from care institutions to support systems, the author describes the organization and grammar of action on which integrated systems are founded. Based on an action-research project conducted within a coaching and case management unit for young people in difficulty in the transition from school to work, as well as on another research project conducted within probation services in French-speaking Switzerland, he examines the experience of users within these integrated support systems. Finally, he examines the stakes of this evolution with regard to the hypothesis of a totalizing experience of social care.