Bridging the gap: How information sharing practices across health, mental health and social care services shape information continuity in the Australian mental healthcare system

Information continuity, where information follows service users across the healthcare system, is an element of continuity of care and is essential for safe and quality care. Information continuity depends on the information practices of both care professionals and service users, such as seeking and sharing information. This paper aims to provide insights into the information practices of care professionals across health, mental health, and social care services in Australia’s mental healthcare system, and how they balance service user privacy with information continuity. Fourteen care professionals were interviewed about seeking and sharing information to provide care for service users. Interviews were analysed inductively and deductively utilising the literature on information continuity, information practices and contextual privacy. Five themes and 14 sub-themes emerged. The lack of a shared information context across different care settings shaped the information practices of care professionals and acted as a barrier to information continuity. Care professionals pieced together information about service users from various sources to understand their needs and to manage risk. Information shared with other care professionals was curated based on a range of factors including, service user consent, risk management and the perceived sensitivity of the information being shared. This study provides new insights into the information practices of care professionals that contribute to information continuity in the mental healthcare system. The findings suggest that ongoing efforts to improve information sharing infrastructure, such as through the adoption of electronic health records, should occur alongside efforts to build relationships and shared information sharing expectations.