Autonomy in residential care: Using TEAMWORK and the deep dive to facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration

Abstract

Residential care communities provide services that allow individuals with chronic health conditions to live independently, yet the transition from the home environment to a residential care community may be associated with loss of autonomy. Services that aim to promote autonomy in the residential care setting have the potential to improve quality of life, yet the needs of individuals with chronic health conditions are complex and best understood from an interdisciplinary perspective. Although interdisciplinary research has been increasingly applied in design practice and academia, it is associated with unique challenges such as divergent terminology, differing theoretical frameworks, and varying criteria to evaluate success across disciplines. In this paper, we describe strategies to draw knowledge from a variety of disciplines, using our team’s efforts to frame the problem of autonomy among individuals with chronic health conditions who live in residential care settings as a case study.