Lina Van Aerschot

The link between socio-economic background and Internet use: barriers faced by low socio-economic status groups and possible solutions

The digital divide affects low socio-economic status groups in particular. According to previous research and survey results of the ELOST project (e-Government for Low Socio-Economic Groups), socio-economic factors – especially age and level of education – play a role in determining whether a person is an Internet user or non-user. This article presents the findings of the survey, as well as those of focus group discussions organized within the framework of the project, and contemplates possible solutions for tackling e-exclusion.

Users of home-care services in a Nordic welfare state under marketisation: the rich, the poor and the sick

Stricter access to public services, outsourcing of municipal services and increasing allocation of public funding for the purchase of private services have resulted in a marketisation wave in Finland. In this context of a Nordic welfare state undergoing marketisation, this paper aims to examine the use of Finnish care services among older people and find out who are using these new kinds of private services. How wide is their use and do the users of private care services differ from those who are using public services? How usual is it to mix both public and private care services? The questionnaire survey data set used here was gathered in 2010 among the population aged 75 and over in the cities of Jyväskylä and Tampere (Nxa0=xa01436). The methods of analysis used include cross-tabulation, chi-square tests and multinomial logistic regression. The findings showed that among those respondents who used care services (nxa0=xa0681), 50% used only public services, 24% utilised solely private services and the remaining 26% used both kinds of services. Users of solely private services had significantly higher income and education as well as better health than those using public services only. The users of public services had the lowest education and income levels and usually lived in rented housing. The third group, those mixing both public and private services, reported poorer health than others. The results increase concerns about the development towards a two-tier service system, jeopardising universalistic Nordic principles, and also suggest that older people with the highest needs do not receive adequate services without complementing their public provisions with private services.

Finnish healthcare professionals' attitudes towards robots: Reflections on a population sample

To answer the question: ‘How prepared healthcare professionals are to take robots as their assistants in terms of experience and acceptance?’

A Telepresence Robot in Residential Care: Family Increasingly Present, Personnel Worried About Privacy

Elderly people moving into assisted living facilities often face profound changes in their daily routines and social relationships, which may lead to feelings of social isolation and even to depression. Telepresence robots can alleviate this by enabling easily accessible virtual presence of family members and other close ones at the ward. Telepresence robots have been tested in different care environments with often positive responses, but there are still challenges, both technical and non-technical, that hinder the wider adoption of the robots in residential care settings. We seek for more understanding of the non-technical challenges by studying the use of a telepresence robot Double in a residential care facility. In a 12-week field trial, we installed a telepresence robot in a room of a long-term care home resident for communicating with her family members. The qualitative interview data included the perspectives of the resident, her family members and care workers at the ward. The results confirm the potential of telepresence robots in assisted living in order to increase the presence of family members to the resident and vice versa; the study also provides insight about how the increased presence of family members may affect the care work.

Vanhuspalvelut ja valinnanvapaus - johtavien viranomaisten näkemyksiä palvelusetelistä

Palveluseteli on yksi vanhuspalveluiden markkinoistamisen valine. Kunnat saavat paattaa sen kayttoonotosta ja kayton ehdoista lain sallimissa rajoissa melko vapaasti. Tama on johtanut siihen, etta kunnissa on hyvin erilaisia ratkaisuja ja lahestymistapoja palvelusetelin kayttoon. Palveluseteli voidaan ottaa kayttoon vain yhdessa tai lukuisissa palveluissa, sita voidaan tarjota kaikille tiettyyn palveluun oikeutetuille tai erilaisin perustein vain joillekin heista. Tassa artikkelissa tarkastellaan paikallisten johtavien viranomaisten haastattelujen perusteella, millaiseksi vanhuspalvelujen jarjestamisen valineeksi palveluseteli kunnissa ymmarretaan seka minkalaisin perusteluin ja tavoittein palveluseteleita on otettu kayttoon. Tutkimuksemme perusteella kunnissa kaytetaan palvelusetelia asiakkaiden ja palveluntuotannon ohjailun seka kustannussaastojen valineena. Paikalliset markkinat ovat olennainen tekija, silla ilman toimivia markkinoita palveluseteli ei tarjoa todellisia valinnan mahdollisuuksia. Palvelusetelin mahdollistamaa valinnanvapautta pohditaan asiakkaan kannalta eri tavoin. Joissakin kunnissa huonokuntoisimpien vanhusten ei ajatella kykenevan valintoihin. Asiakkaan toimintakyvyn ja kunnon lisaksi palveluseteleita voidaan kohdentaa maksukyvyn perusteella vain hyvatuloisille. Vaihtoehtoisesti palvelusetelista voidaan tehda tulosidonnainen, jolloin yksityisten palvelujen kaytto on aidosti mahdollista myos pienituloisille. nEldercare services and free choice – The public officials’ perspective to service voucher nService voucher is one of the tools that can be used to marketize public social and health services. In Finland, the municipalities may introduce vouchers to chosen services rather freely. The legislation determines the principles and frames but leaves plenty of room for local variation. In this article, we examine in which ways the vouchers are used. Based on expert interviews of municipal officers, we study the arguments and aims that are related to the use of service vouchers in care services for older people. Accordingly, the vouchers are used to channel customers between public and private services and to save costs. The local service markets need to be large enough for vouchers to be a functioning tool, but the authorities may also use vouchers to create demand for private services. Vouchers may be allocated for all older people, only those who are not too frail, or the better off.