The future of health and care services in the EU faces the three challenges of the aging
population, fiscal restriction, and social inclusion. Co-production offers ways to
manage informal care resources to enable them to better cater to the growing needs of
elderly people. Social Media (SM) are seen as a critical enabler of co-production.
This study investigates SM as an enabler of co-production in health and care for elderly
people and develops a typology of opportunities and limitations of SM in relation to
health and care. The study considers how SM acts as an enabler of co-production in
health and care by facilitating its four underlying principles: equality, diversity,
accessibility, and reciprocity. Normalization Process Theory (NPT) provides the
theoretical framework for this qualitative study. Eighteen semi-structured interviews
and observation of the activities of 10 online groups and individuals provide the data
for the thematically-analysed findings.
The study findings show how different SM are used to enable co-production through
coordination and communication across boundaries. SM connects carers, disseminates
information and engages volunteers. However, many types of SM are only rarely used
in this sector due to their limitations. Nevertheless, carers of elderly patients
demonstrated interest in using systems to engage people in the shaping of services, the
sharing of experiences and encouraging activities. The study findings point to distinct
patterns of feature use by different people involved in the care of elderly people. This
diversity makes possible the principles of co-production by offering equality among
users, enabling diversity of use, making experiences accessible, and encouraging
reciprocity in the sharing of knowledge and mutual support. Exploitation of common
resources also may lead to new forms of competition and conflicts. These conflicts
require better management to enhance the coordination of the common pool of
resources.
The study finds that SM can facilitate co-production by offering mechanisms for
coordination of the common pool of carer resources. It also enables better management
of activities amongst other actors (professionals, patients, voluntary organisations,
etc.). The study also demonstrates that, despite the capabilities of SM in achieving coproduction,
many applications (both general and healthcare-specific) are not used to
their full potential. The study also explores new innovations in this field and why they
have failed to deliver their intended services
