In the Nordics, increasing pressures on welfare provision due to ageing populations spur discussions on qualitative health and social care in older age, as well as limitations of public strategies and budgets. As a response, there has been a strategic turn among the national health authorities in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, signalling that municipalities should plan for home-based care, local community care and age-friendly and activating place-making. In many municipalities, this shift from institution-based care to home-based services is already a fact.
However, this requires a much more comprehensive approach by the municipalities, and cross-sectoral coordination among municipal departments of health and social care, planning, housing, mobility and parks and green structure. Today, efforts are often concentrated either on housing provision and construction or on population health and related aspects. Attempts to coordinate between sector interests is often hesitant or in early stages. Therefore, there is an urgent need to close the gap between knowledge fields and study these issues combined.
Representing a novel approach compared to existing research, LOCALCARE will study how various age-friendly housing environments intersect with health and social care service provision in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Importantly, we will examine the relationship between physical and social contexts and health and social services with a variety of methods and bridge the inherent silo thinking.
Project outcomes are hands-on tools for municipalities to work strategically towards creating qualitative living environments enabling home-based health and social care: 1) Indicators of age-friendly housing types that incorporate elements of health and social care, 2) An ‘Age-friendly local community compass’ to support development of age-friendly local living environments, and 3) Insights into municipal strategic steering towards age-friendly cities. The work will be carried out in close collaboration with six partner municipalities and a reference group including relevant stakeholders. Further, LOCALCARE contributes to building a new transdisciplinary research field focusing on Nordic conditions.
