Quality recommendation to guarantee a good quality of life and improved services for older persons

Abstract

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities issued a national framework for high-quality services for older people in 2001 and 2008. In 2013, the quality recommendation has been updated to accommodate changes taking place in the guidance and operational environment and the latest research information. The aim of the recommendation is to assist the implementation of the Act on Supporting the Functional Capacity of the Ageing Population and on Social and Health Care Services for Older Persons (the so-called Act on the Care Services for Older Persons). The quality recommendation was prepared in a broad-based working group. Like its predecessors, the recommendation is primarily intended to assist policy-makers and leaders in municipalities and local governmental joint services areas in the development and evaluation of services for the older population. It can also be utilised for the planning and evaluation of their own activities by many other parties, including providers of social and health care services, professionals in the field and third-sector actors. The overall aim of the quality recommendation is to guarantee, as much as possible, the good health and functional capacity of the entire older population and high-quality, effective services for those older persons who need them. Similarly to the aforementioned Act, some of the recommendations thus apply to the population level, while others are targeted at the individual level. The main contents of the quality recommendation are: inclusion and agency, housing and living environment, guaranteeing, as much as possible, the good health and functional capacity of the older population, the right services at the right time, the structure of services, human resources for providing care and attention, management. All content areas have their own recommendations. Particular attention was paid to providing knowledge-based justifications and indicators by which the implementation of the recommendations can be systematically evaluated for the thematic areas that they cover. To facilitate those who draw on the recommendations, they also contain links to acts, other recommendations, government resolutions and other guidance documents that have an essential connection with the recommendation, as well as links to various support materials, including hand books and descriptions of good practices