Innovations in home-based elderly care in remote areas. Findings from northern Norway

Abstract

We live in a society marked by an ageing population. Research indicates that the majority of elderly people prefer to live in their own home, including in the later stages of their lives when they depend on care (Berglund, Dunér, Blomberg, & Kjellgren, 2012) It is also documented that the number of users of care services in Norway has increased by 20% from 1994 to 2013, whereas the public spending on the care sector has doubled during the same period of time (Otnes, 2015). Young users of home care services compose a proportion of this increase (Gautun & Grødem, 2015), but demographic ageing will undoubtedly put further pressure on the sector. Today, the municipal care services consist of farreaching and continuous (24/7) activities that are carried out by a small number of managers, a large number of personnel, a high percentage of employees without professional training, many part-time workers, most of them women, increasingly with an immigrant back-ground (NOU 2011:11, 14).