Family Care Support Portal (Anhörigstödsportale)

Sweden

01-02-2008

The main aim of the initiative is to use the internet to enhance the communication between family caregivers and family care support services staff.

This is a local initiative which was set up by the IT company “Open Care”, staff from the Gävle municipality and family caregivers. The rationale for setting up the initiative was to employ a modern ICT system to facilitate communication and support between caregivers and staff in order to enhance the overall efficiency of family care support services. In this way the initiative fits in well with the current national e-Health strategy which places the citizen at the centre of services and emphasizes the importance of IT systems, making it easier for citizens to access information, receive care advice and support.

 Care Recipients
 Informal carers
 Paid assistants
 Formal carers

Not available

 Independent Living
 Information and learning for carers
 Personal Support and Social Integration for carer
 Care coordination

Within the portal, informal carers can keep an electronic diary, send messages to family care staff, book a request for respite care and remain informed via written and graphical information from a range of family care support activities available in the municipality. Once the carer signs up, he/she has access to the Family Care Support Portal via a computer with an internet connection.

The care professionals can keep in touch with family carers, plan their activities and check the older person health conditions.

A personal computer, tablet and smart phone with an internet connection.

Both public and private

Public service funding: Government, Regional, Local Authorities, non-profit public entities

Not available

Other: please specify

1. Private out of pocket: users pay for the service.

2. Private ICT company.

Not available

Prospects for sustainability and development within the Gävle municipality are good as the city already has a well-established range of family care support services. Since this ICT service is offered to all known caregivers in the municipality, it is likely the initiative will continue to be supported.

Not available

 Authorities
 Private Care Sector
 Health and Social Care Systems
 Third Sector
 Private Companies

Not available

 Informal Carers
 Health Professionals
 Social Care Professionals
 Privately-Hired Care Assistants (inc. Migrant Care Workers)
 Volunteers

The service is delivered by health and social professionals of the Gävle municipality: sociologists, social workers, General Practitioners, psychologists.

Not involved

501 - 1,000

610 users.

The main promotion channel is the initiative website.

At the end of the pilot phase, caregivers and staff expressed high levels of satisfaction with the service.

In particular, it may positively impact on:

- Informal caregivers, as it provides constant communication and helps to manage the anxiety that often characterises family caregivers. It helps them to reconcile care and work and improves their social life and health.

- Elderly people, as it improves their social life and health, by enhancing their opportunities for social interaction.

- Paid assistants, as the service helps to alleviate their isolation and gives them an additional opportunity to communicate and to receive training (Weivert et al., 2010).

The service may positively impact on:

- Private organisations that provide care, as it helps them save costs and optimize resources

- Companies and the labour market, as it helps the informal caregiver to reconcile paid work and caregiving tasks (Weivert et al., 2010).

The service may positively impact on public authorities, the NHS and social services, as it helps save the costs of home caring and hospitalisation and is effective in training informal and formal caregivers. It helps to optimise financial and human resources (Weivert et al., 2010).

Strengths

1. The pilot project has been assessed through quantitative and qualitative methods.
2. Training courses for staff and users have been provided.
3. The service implementation did not require a large investment. It used an open-source code giving municipality staff more freedom to carry out improvements to the system themselves and to avoid dependency on one provider. It also avoided costly licenses for users.
4. The service is user friendly.
5. The initiative is clearly in line with the current e-health strategy which places the citizen at the centre of the ICT system and the potential of ICT systems to facilitate communication with citizens and care providers
6. The care system does not need to be adapted, rather it makes existing routines more efficient by enabling a number of administrative functions, regarding family care support services, to be carried out in one integrated portal.
7. The service has been nominated for several Swedish health care and social services ICT awards.

Weaknesses

1. A limit to this initiative's transferability is the fact that the website works poorly and does not have any information in English. This is a limit for those who recognize the initiative interesting and want to replicate it in other contexts.
2. The document on impact assessment of the service during its pilot phase is unavailable.

Challenges

1. A challenge for the service is to enable the active involvement of caregivers in the portal, by posting messages, participating to discussion and sharing experiences.
2. Reaching also those caregivers who are not currently regular computer and/or Internet users.
3. To convince decision makers of other municipalities, of the benefits of the system.
4. Providing more tailored services in the future.

Threats:

1. The lack of will of Public Authorities to fund ICT solutions for home care.

The service is currently being implemented throughout the municipality of Gävle so that all staff have access to the portal and all known caregivers can utilize the portal. In theory, it should be quite easy to transfer to other municipalities.

Publications:

Information brochures about the service Furubacke, L. (2010). Anhörigstödsportalen 2.0 Slutrapport, Ett delprojekt inom Tryggtkvarboende, Hjälpmedelsinstitutet, Vällingby, Sverige.

Weivert K., Furubacke L. & Nordström S. (2010). Anhörigstödsportalen-så gjorde vi i Gävle, Rapport, Hjälpmedelsinstitutet, Vällingby, Sverige

Relatives Center

Telephone: 0046 02 17 23 23

E-mail: anhorigcenter.omv@gavle.se

Website: www.gavle.se/anhorigcenter