Geographical variation in municipal home care services

Geographical variation in municipal home care services

" Geographical variation in municipal home care services" is a three-year research project connected to Daniel Rød's postdoctoral position at the Center for Care Research North (SOF) at UiT, running from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024. The project is led by Daniel Rød, with Professor Bodil Blix and Associate Professor Rolf Markussen as collaborators at the Department of Health and Care, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

This research project lies at the intersection of social sciences and healthcare research and aims to contribute to the field of healthcare research by empirically exploring and analysing a rural and urban case municipality to investigate whether structural factors such as healthcare policy and resource allocations/distributions come into play differently in geographically different municipalities.

This project seeks to examine geographic variation in municipal home care services.

Research Question 1: How do employees in municipal home care services in a rural and an urban case municipality experience structural factors as enabling and/or limiting in their work with elderly individuals living at home?

Structural factors here refer, for example, to resource allocations/distributions, the organization of municipal home care services, healthcare policy directives, geography and demography. To address this research question, the project leader, in collaboration with project partners, will conduct qualitative focus group interviews and individual semi-structured interviews with employees in municipal home care services in two case municipalities.

Research Question 2: How do elderly individuals living at home and receiving services in a rural and an urban case municipality experience the services they receive from the employees and the organization of municipal home care services in their municipality?

To address this research question, the project will conduct qualitative individual semi-structured interviews with elderly individuals receiving home care services in the two case municipalities. Relevant topics may include the scope and organization of received services in relation to needs, perceived quality, employee turnover, local connections, and more. It is also of interest to investigate whether there is a connection between the responses and the analysis from research question 1.

The overarching goal of the study is to enhance our understanding of an important part of the Norwegian welfare state, namely municipal home care services, with regard to potential geographic variations/differences. The study is also relevant in relation to the welfare state's ambition of providing equitable healthcare services. The research questions are relevant for the research field, policymakers, service recipients, and employees in municipal healthcare services.

The project is evaluated by SIKT and has a projectnumber 884932.