"Picturephone in My Home" : Actor-Network Theory and Foucauldian Discourse Analysis on Northern Finnish Older Adults Starting to Use a Video Conferencing Service

Technology has been considered an important means to deliver services in a cost-effective manner in societies that are aging and implementing austerity policies. In this article, we analyze older adults' use of assistive technology, the picturephone, in home care by combining actor-network theory (ANT) and Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA). We also apply Foucault's concepts of technologies of the self, regimen, and resistance. Our research materials consist of interviews with eight Northern Finnish older adults and observation data. According to our results, technological translation takes place when users associate picturephone technology with the discourses on health and safety, connectedness, and/or learning. When the technology discourse collides with or deviates from these discourses, it disrupts the technological translation, and older adults do not include the picturephone technology in their regimen, their daily life. In Finland, care policy favors technology and pursues its adoption in older adults' care. In our case, private companies, care workers, technology advisers, family members, and older adults are recruited to join this effort. Older adults' position in their social-material networks varies strongly in the different phases of the translation, and their technologies of the self have a significant effect on its outcome. This should be considered when designing and utilizing ICT technologies in elderly care.Peer reviewe

Bringing Dying Back Home? : Northern Finns’ End-of-Life Preparations, Concerns and Care Preferences and Finnish Care Policy’s Emphasis on Care at Home

In recent years, Finnish care policy has emphasised that older people should remain at home for as long as possible. Since the final stages of life and death will theoretically happen more often in the home, it is important to identify people’s experiences and needs regarding end-of-life care and dying. The aim of this article is to provide knowledge on these questions from the perspective of the Northern Finnish people (N = 294). Statistical analysis was used with data gathered from a survey of a random sample. People’s wishes for their end-of-life place and carers and their end-of-life plans and concerns, are analysed as part of a social and cultural construction of dying and end-of-life care. The results show that people do have end-of-life concerns and that they consider end-of-life planning important but that few preparations are actually made. In many instances, home is regarded as the best place for end-of-life care and dying, but care institutions are also regarded positively. Reliance on professional care is very strong, even though people hope to receive care from family members as well. The results are discussed in the light of Finnish care policy and end-of-life culture.Peer reviewe

Victim-Offender Mediation: Observations from Scandinavia

The focus of this article is the discourse between parties and mediator(s) in Victim-Offender Mediation in Scandinavia. The analysis show that mediation talk is concentrated on what happened in the actual crime situation, and what the parties and other persons present at the time did or did not do. Different “accounts” are used actively by the parties, to excuse or justify their behaviour. The explanations for crime are thus primarily found on an individual level, leaving societal issues out. A normative and evaluative inquiry of crimes and why crimes occur plays a minimal (if any) role in VOM in Scandinavia

Antioxidants of Edible Mushrooms

Oxidative stress caused by an imbalanced metabolism and an excess of reactive oxygen species (ROS) lead to a range of health disorders in humans. Our endogenous antioxidant defense mechanisms and our dietary intake of antioxidants potentially regulate our oxidative homeostasis. Numerous synthetic antioxidants can effectively improve defense mechanisms, but because of their adverse toxic effects under certain conditions, preference is given to natural compounds. Consequently, the requirements for natural, alternative sources of antioxidant foods identified in edible mushrooms, as well as the mechanistic action involved in their antioxidant properties, have increased rapidly. Chemical composition and antioxidant potential of mushrooms have been intensively studied. Edible mushrooms might be used directly in enhancement of antioxidant defenses through dietary supplementation to reduce the level of oxidative stress. Wild or cultivated, they have been related to significant antioxidant properties due to their bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, polysaccharides, vitamins, carotenoids and minerals. Antioxidant and health benefits, observed in edible mushrooms, seem an additional reason for their traditional use as a popular delicacy food. This review discusses the consumption of edible mushrooms as a powerful instrument in maintaining health, longevity and life quality

Koti, hyvinvointityö ja haavoittuvuus

In this book [titled Home, welfare work and vulnerability] the authors take the reader on welfare workers’ home visits to clients in need of support in their living. Welfare workers refer to professionals in health and social care who in the book are represented among others by social workers, social care workers and nurses. The main concepts of the book are home, welfare work and vulnerability and these are contemplated from different angles. Welfare work entails encountering people who are in vulnerable situations in the midst of their everyday lives. They may need support in coping with their mental health, with physical illnesses, with the challenges of achieving sobriety and recovery or perhaps with the difficulties accompanying old age. On the one hand their ability to act is limited and weak but on the other they have many kinds of strengths and resources. The book addresses a significant turning point in welfare services and work at which the objective is defined as the right of every individual to their own home and making living at home feasible for as long as possible. In the last fifty years or so many societal factors have made possible the dismantling of institutions, the reduction of places and the shortening of stays in institutions, the further development of care in the community, the construction of small residential and care facilities and most recently the further development of services to be taken into people’s homes. The last stage of this dismantling of institutions is referred to in the book as the “home turn”. As a societal change the home turn is complex – and that is how it is approached in the book. When one’s own home is the main place in which welfare policy and work are implemented, it is important to scrutinize more closely what actually occurs there and what special issues are connected to this given context. The book offers a timely point of view on the development of welfare services and the grass-root level welfare work done in the homes. It draws on interaction research based on ethnomethodology and human geography. Research data consist of recordings of home visits, researcher’s field diaries and interviews with clients and workers. The work includes both chapters providing conceptual and theoretical overviews and empirical research on the encounters between client and worker(s) on home visits. Welfare work accomplished in people’s homes entails many tensions and ethical issues which are analysed in the book and made visible through the means of research

The Potential Role of Vitamin D Enhanced Foods in Improving Vitamin D Status

Low vitamin D intake and status have been reported worldwide and many studies have suggested that this low status may be involved in the development of several chronic diseases. There are a limited number of natural dietary sources of vitamin D leading to a real need for alternatives to improve dietary intake. Enhancement of foods with vitamin D is a possible mode for ensuring increased consumption and thus improved vitamin D status. The present review examines studies investigating effects of vitamin D enhanced foods in humans and the feasibility of the approach is discussed