Welfare Technologies in Care Work

Abstract

Welfare technologies have within the last few years become a new mantra for reforming the Nordic public health and social care, and are increasingly making their impact on working life of care professionals.Welfare technologies – a term exclusively used in a Nordic context – is a broad and loosely defined concept that covers a wide array of technologies such as tele-care solutions, automatic toilets, eating robots, GPS-trackers, and many others. They are envisioned as leading to a new and smarter form of retrenchment, promising better quality, empowerment of clients, and work that is smarter and more qualified (e.g., Danish government et al. 2013). Together with other reform initiatives like coproduction, rehabili- tation, and user-involvement, welfare technologies aim at enabling a change in the role of the clients/patients, stressing their resourcefulness and potentials and encouraging to self-responsibilization and self-care (Rose 1998; Triantafillou 2017).This implies a fundamental reorganization of care work, a transformation of what care and care work is about, and consequently of meaning and identity in work (see, e.g., Barnes & Cotterell 2012; Järvinen 2012; Kirkegaard & Andersen 2018; Meldgaard Hansen & Kamp 2018). More concretely, we may expect changes in work tasks, social relations and forms of cooperation between occupational groups, and new relations to clients/patients and their relatives. This may not only imply new challenges and strains in work but may also present new possibilities for employees to engage creatively in shaping work in ways that makes care work more meaningful and sustainable. (...)

The concept of welfare technology in Swedish municipal eldercare

“…However, how welfare technology is perceived by people who work with and make decisions about welfare technology in the context of municipal eldercare is under-researched and forms the topic of this paper [7,19,27]. Although welfare technology is a Nordic concept, technology in home care is constantly increasing all over the world [2,3,6,[28][29][30][31][32] and it is therefore of importance to understand how people who work with technology in healthcare perceive the opportunities and challenges of technology deployment in eldercare.…”

Occupational Identities and Physical Exertion in (re)configurations of New Technologies in Eldercare

“…Deciding how to handle these matters are issues for legislators, managers/headmasters, and unions throughout the Nordic countries, where the focus on welfare technologies is shared (Kamp et al 2019). This calls for thorough ethical discussions.…”

“…emographic changes toward an increased proportion of elderly in the population and a slightly declining percentage of people active in the labor market toward 2040 (Danmarks Statistik 2017) is leading to an increasing percentage of the Danish population requiring elderly care. This presents a challenge to the welfare system as a cause of increasing costs and difficulty in recruitment of qualified workforce in elderly care-a challenge that is echoed throughout the Nordic countries (Kamp et al 2019;Modig 2012;NOU 2011:11). At the same time, the physically demanding work in elderly care is a significant health and safety problem among care workers (Andersen et al 2012;NFA, 2014; and a hindrance to keeping workers active for longer.…”

‘They Just Came with the Medication Dispenser’ – A Qualitative Study of Service User Involvement and Welfare Technology in Public Home Care Services

“…In the Scandinavian countries, the term welfare technology is commonly used to describe technological solutions used in home care to support and improve services (14). In the international literature, terms such as telecare, telehealth, telemedicine, assistive living technology and e-health are often used synonymously with welfare technology (15,16).…”