Research on services for older people examines the need for services for older people, how they are provided, their adequacy, resources, quality, and effectiveness.
As the population ages and longevity increases, the service needs of older people change. At the same time, social and health policy evolves along with other societal changes.
Research on the functional capacity of the ageing, service needs, and the implementation and quality of services is important both from an ethical and human perspective and in terms of the adequacy of limited resources. The wellbeing of older people and how services are organized now and in the future are significant for the sustainability of our service system.
Goals
The project produces national-level information that strengthens evidence-based decision-making and development of services.
The main objectives of the research are to produce information
- on the health, functional capacity, service needs, quality and adequacy of services for older people using services, as well as the overall composition of services provided
- on the quality of care, staff structure, productivity, and the effectiveness of services from the perspective of care units
- on changes over time from the perspective of older people, care units, and wellbeing services counties.
At the same time, the extensive research use of Finnish national registers is developed to support citizens, wellbeing services counties, and decision-making.
Implementation
The research project is mainly carried out within the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare's (THL) Older People Services team, which also administers two statutory national data collections on services for older people, namely the Monitoring of Services for Older People and the RAI database consisting of assessments of functional capacity and service needs.
To obtain information on how service chains function and on the situation of the older population, data on services must be compiled from several different sources. In addition to the statutory data resources maintained by THL, other register-based data is utiliezed, such as
- data from the care registers for healthcare and social welfare (HILMO, AvoHILMO and SosiaaliHILMO)
- data on reimbursement of medicines from KELA
- register data from Statistics Finland and the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
Also, qualitative research is conducted based on interview data together with our partners.
The research uses traditional research methods, but also other research methods when required by the objectives. In addition, artificial intelligence is used in subprojects to model algorithms that predict service needs to support knowledge-based management. The results are published freely as scientific articles and as popularised reports, presentations, and summaries.
Funding
Kone Foundation, Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Research Council of Finland
Partners
- European Union Geriatric Medicine Society, Belgium
- Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland
- GeroFuture
- Hebrew Rehabilitation Center Corp, USA
- interRAI Research Network
- Jagiellonian University, Poland
- Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium
- Laurea University of Applied Sciences
- Nordic Healthcare Group Finland Oy
- Organizations for RAI Benchmarking Development in Finland
- Vrije Uniersiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
- VU University Medical Center, Netherlands
- Tampere University
- Università Cattollica del Sacro Cuore, Italy
- University of Canterbury, New Zealand
- University of Eastern Finland
- University of Helsinki
- University of Jyväskylä
- University of Oulu
- University of Waterloo, Canada
- Univerzita Karlova, Czech Republic
- World Health Organization (WHO)
Contact details
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