The health and social care sector (HCS) is currently facing multiple challenges across Europe: against the background of ageing societies, more people are in need of care. Simultaneously, several ...countries report a lack of skilled personnel. Due to its structural characteristics, including a high share of part-time workers, an ageing workforce, and challenging working conditions, the HCS requires measures and strategies to deal with these challenges.
This qualitative study analyses if and how organisations in three countries (Germany, Finland, and the UK) report similar challenges and how they support longer working careers in the HCS. Therefore, we conducted multiple case studies in care organisations. Altogether 54 semi-structured interviews with employees and representatives of management were carried out and analysed thematically.
Analysis of the interviews revealed that there are similar challenges reported across the countries. Multiple organisational measures and strategies to improve the work ability and working life participation of (ageing) workers were identified. We identified similar challenges across our cases but different strategies in responding to them. With respect to the organisational measures, our results showed that the studied organisations did not implement any age-specific management strategies but realised different reactive and proactive human relation measures aiming at maintaining and improving employees' work ability (i.e., health, competence and motivation) and longer working careers.
Organisations within the HCS tend to focus on the recruitment of younger workers and/or migrant workers to address the current lack of skilled personnel. The idea of explicitly focusing on ageing workers and the concept of age management as a possible solution seems to lack awareness and/or popularity among organisations in the sector. The concept of age management offers a broad range of measures, which could be beneficial for both, employees and employers/organisations. Employees could benefit from a better occupational well-being and more meaningful careers, while employers could benefit from more committed employees with enhanced productivity, work ability and possibly a longer career.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
CEKLJ, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
•Older persons show significant increases in self-reported health from 2002 to 2018.•Relative, but not absolute social inequality declined during this time.•Self-reported health has increased with ...virtually every examined demographic.•Gaps between high-income and low-income demographics remain significant, however.•High-income, post-retirement groups report better health in 2018 than low-income, pre-retirement groups.
Using data from the European Social Survey 1 (2002) and 9 (2018) we show the development of self-rated health of older persons in 17 countries. We find a considerable increase of older persons reporting good or very good health between 2002 and 2018; this increase is similar in all groups examined. Absolute differences between income groups remained vastly stable. Further, in 2018 the high-income tercile of those between 65 and 80 years still reported better health than the low-income tercile of those between 49 and 64 years. Overall, self-rated health seems to have improved in Europe but there are still signs of a considerable gap between low-income groups and high-income groups.
Abstract
Purpose of the Study
Participatory design (PD) is widely used within gerontechnology but there is no common understanding about which methods are used for what purposes. This review aims to ...examine what different forms of PD exist in the field of gerontechnology and how these can be categorized.
Design and Methods
We conducted a systematic literature review covering several databases. The search strategy was based on 3 elements: (1) participatory methods and approaches with (2) older persons aiming at developing (3) technology for older people.
Results
Our final review included 26 studies representing a variety of technologies designed/developed and methods/instruments applied. According to the technologies, the publications reviewed can be categorized in 3 groups: Studies that (1) use already existing technology with the aim to find new ways of use; (2) aim at creating new devices; (3) test and/or modify prototypes. The implementation of PD depends on the questions: Why a participatory approach is applied, who is involved as future user(s), when those future users are involved, and how they are incorporated into the innovation process.
Implications
There are multiple ways, methods, and instruments to integrate users into the innovation process. Which methods should be applied, depends on the context. However, most studies do not evaluate if participatory approaches will lead to a better acceptance and/or use of the co-developed products. Therefore, participatory design should follow a comprehensive strategy, starting with the users’ needs and ending with an evaluation if the applied methods have led to better results.
Background: Since smart speakers like Amazon's Echo have been introduced in 2015, the devices show rapid diffusion. Older users have been identified as a user group that can benefit from smart ...speakers as the devices can be operated by voice commands and do not require knowledge of visual interfaces. Smart speakers can be customized and individualized with downloadable software applications called ＂skills＂ or ＂actions＂. Due to this ＂fit＂, there is a growing number of skills available for download that target older users. As known from other technologies, design choices are affected by images of aging that are often simplistic or negative. Objective: Focusing on Amazon's skill store, the aim of this paper is to identify skills available specifically for older users. We explore the extent to which skills for older persons are determined by deficit-oriented images of aging. Method: We searched Amazon's skill store for terms such as ＂elderly＂, ＂senior＂, and ＂older person＂ and abbreviations and included skills that target older users. To analyze the identified skills, we applied a feature analysis that allows us to investigate the design choices of developers and their images of aging. As part of the feature analysis, we used qualitative content analysis to interpret the data. Results: The search revealed 67 skills targeting older persons. The dominant category was ＂Health and Fitness＂, followed by ＂Education and Reference＂ and ＂Productivity＂. The analysis revealed the following most frequent features: News about events, informing relatives about health and emergencies, physical and mental exercise, and medication reminders. We identified multiple skills that follow negative images of aging and aim at compensation. Conclusion: Smart speakers are a technology with a rising proliferation and increasingly become relevant for older users. The feature analysis underlines that deficit-oriented images of aging are still common in technology development.
Population-based healthcare follows an integrated and regional approach instead of focusing on single individuals and marks a new way of how healthcare is organized and provided. Although promoted by ...policy-makers, up to date these models are rather an exception than the norm. Still, there are some successful examples. This paper focuses on population-based integrated care programmes in Germany and draws its conclusions on a case study within the German healthcare system. Applying the concept of social innovation, we discuss the potential benefits but also limitations of population-based healthcare and explain why these approaches have not been able to achieve the impact that many stakeholders expected.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
SiCl2 as a simultaneous σ‐donor and ‐acceptor: The reaction of the Lewis base stabilized dichlorosilylene L→SiCl2 with B(C6F5)3 (L=imidazol‐2‐ylidene derivative) afforded the first silylene donor ...acceptor L→SiCl2→B(C6F5)3 complex (shown here). Charge density analysis revealed that the two C→Si and Si→B donor bonds are of considerably different quality. However, plain bond length consideration might suggest simple CSi and SiB single bonds.
Reactions of silicon halides with N-heterocyclic carbene produce neutral penta- or hexacoordinate complexes IPr·SiF4 (1), IPr·SiF4·IPr (2), and IPr·SiBr4 (3) (IPr = :CN(2,6-iPr2-C6H3)CH2). Molecular ...structures of 1−3 were determined by X-ray diffraction studies and exhibit interesting structural features.
The housing sector is currently under pressure: demographic shifts, urbanisation as well as the availability and costs of housing have led to increasing prices. Concerns are being raised that these ...rising housing costs could lead to intergenerational conflicts. While older generations often live in their privatelyowned dwellings, younger cohorts struggle to become homeowners, moving the field of housing into the spotlight of national debates. We analyse the importance of housing for Europeans using data from Eurobarometer. Results show that the relevance of housing increased between 2008 and 2018. However, generational differences were found: while older and younger people see housing as an important topic at the country level, only the younger generation seems to be affected personally. Online Appendix
Introduction. In 2020, Digital Health Applications (known as DiGA) have been introduced to the German healthcare system. DiGA are medical devices based on digital technologies that can be prescribed ...by physician and psychotherapists and reimbursed by health insurance companies. DiGA must demonstrate a positive healthcare effect, e.g. by improving of health literacy. Health literacy as a concept has received increasing attention in recent years but has also been subject to a vivid debate on its theoretical underpinning and methodological challenges. Method & Analysis. For this study, all 53 DiGA listed in the official registry were reviewed. We searched the DiGA registry to answer the following research question: do DiGA measure health literacy and which health literacy measurement instruments are applied? Results. Of the 53 DiGA listed, 29 are permanently and 24 provisionally listed in the DiGA directory. Although seven DiGA use health literacy measurement tools, the theoretical or conceptual explanation of these tools and the decision to use them is lacking. Conclusion. This paper argues that there is a need to empirically investigate the motivation of DiGA developers, taking into account the use and non-use of health literacy measurement tools.
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