Use of Welfare Technology in Elderly Care

This thesis is an interpretive qualitative research study exploring the use of welfare technology in elderly care. In Norway, health care and social services for elderly people are important parts of the welfare policy. A growing elderly population is putting a strain on the society’s welfare system. Scarce welfare resources restrict human care services for our future generations. Alternative housings and the use of welfare technology are effective techniques that can be used to transform current elderly care into a more sustainable service delivery. This thesis reports from two interpretive case studies and an action research study where I explore upon the use of welfare technology in a care housing and a nursing home. These studies form the basis from which I intend to answer the thesis’s main research questions. The questions are as follows: RQ1: What are the key constraints and benefits of the current use of welfare technology in elderly care? RQ2: What are the elderly users’ barriers to the adoption and use of welfare technology? RQ3: How can technology-supported services better be incorporated into the elderly care work? A key constraint of elderly care is the primary focus on formal care services and the lack of attention paid to technology-supported services that all elderly people actually can use. Technology-supported care services are often introduced too late thus resulting in a failure to support users in practice. Some users experience difficulties and gaps in the services provided when traversing the “care staircase”. This is heightened by the vast array of care services and their interaction with the different caring locations, including ordinary homes, care housing and nursing homes. Moreover, the lack of infrastructure and a standard for welfare technology is constraining users who want to prolong independent living. My findings indicate that the key constraints of using welfare technology are more pronounced than its potential benefits. However, I stress that the identified key constraints lie in the importance of knowledge in the processes of transforming elderly care, as the constraints can be solved by expanded use of technology. The use of welfare technology in the overall elderly care is diverse; however the most essential function is to support users with safety and security measures. The traditional safety alarm is seen as limited because it requires users to understand how to use it regardless of their cognitive and physical capabilities. I recognise a need for separating welfare technology into the active and passive use of technology. Welfare technologies should be designed with different levels of automation to support unstable user needs and the diversity of users. I recognise elderly care as a collaborative effort including joint work contribution from elderly people (self-care), family and volunteers (informal care), and paid health care providers (formal care). The use of technology can play a role in the division of elderly care work and be an important tool in delegate work responsibility back to the elderly people, with or without backup support from informal and formal care providers. I believe that all of those involved in care work will benefit from the increasing use of technology-support services. Furthermore, I present one practical approach of how to transform conventional home care practice into a new service delivery with use of welfare technology, such as telecare, to increase independence of the elderly care users and decrease the need for fully supported care. Moreover, I call for a re-design of the current “care staircase” to overcome the key constraints and to realise the use of welfare technology in order to exploits full potential and reap the resultant benefits. Thus, I propose a conceptual elderly care trajectory that includes the joint collaborative care work with assumptions for technology-supported services for the various types of care work