Facilities Management and Health Care at Home

The topic of this thesis is the new requirements that will be put upon the facilities management when the elderly are living longer in their own homes, in spite of illness, impairment and old age. For many reasons, especially demographic ones, this issue has come to the fore and since it has substantial political impact and considerably affects our living conditions, it will most certainly appear on the agenda of most Swedish housing companies in the near future. The growing number of inhabitants in need of care and rehabilitation is a current subject in many countries of the industrial world. More medical conditions can be treated, but often at an ever increasing cost. Care and housing are often interlinked and more interest is being paid to the possibility of offering care to elderly in their own homes. This development must lead to a discussion of the home as a hospital ward from time to time, and the demands it places on facilities management and security. So far the prospects of telecare services and "Smart homes" has been very little discussed in parallel, although in many aspects they share the same technological base. The principal interest of the housing companies is to find a role in accordance with their mainstream business, and at the same time co-operate with other municipal actors directly in charge of offering assistance and service. There has been only limited study and research into the complex interaction between technology, home-based social service and the housing company. The purpose here is to develop an understanding of the requirements placed on both the housing company and the CP when a tenant is to be subjected to minor and more extensive care at home, or suffers from an illness or an impairment which requires special equipment or technical adjustment in the home. A model to interpret this situation has been developed in this thesis.QC 2010080