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BACKGROUND: People with physical disabilities due to disease or injury face barriers to their daily activities and participation in society. Many depend on formal or informal caregivers for assistance to live independently. However, future healthcare challenges due to demographic changes threaten access to home care and assistants. Assistive technologies, such as robots for physical assistance, can support the independence and autonomy of people with physical disabilities. This study explore Norwegian care-receivers' perceptions of using robot assistance in their homes, including preferences for tasks acceptable or unacceptable for robot assistance and the underlying reasons. METHOD: Purposive sampling was employed to recruit 18 participants, aged between 18 and 77 years, with differences in physical function including diagnoses such as stroke, spinal cord injury, amputations, and muscular dystrophy. Qualitative data were gathered through four focus group interviews wherein participants watched videos featuring a humanoid assistive robot, EVEr3. The collected data underwent analysis using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS: Three themes with associated sub-themes were constructed: (a) How a robot could assist in daily life, (b) The robot's appearance and functionality, and (c) Concerns about having a robot as an assistant. The participants welcomed the idea of a future robotic assistant in areas that may contribute to an increased feeling of independence and autonomy. CONCLUSION: A robot assisting in activities of daily living would need to be individually customized to meet the needs of each user in terms of which tasks to assist with, how to assist in these defined tasks, and how it is controlled.

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This article describes the results of a field test of an exoskeleton in care work. Qualitative data about the implementation and use of exoskeletons, with the help of interviews and user diaries, were collected both from nurses who used the exoskeleton and managers at different levels of the care organization. On the basis of these data, there are relatively few obstacles in and many opportunities for the implementation of exoskeletons in care work, taken that the introduction, orientation and continuous support for technology use are given enough weight.

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This future-oriented study examines the opportunities and challenges offered by social robots and communication technology when aiming to decrease emotional and social loneliness in older people residing in assisted living (AL). The paper draws on prior literature on loneliness, elder care and social robots. The aim is to scan the futures regarding technology support for the frail older people in future AL. The analytical frame was built on Robert Weiss' division of relational functions: attachment, social integration, opportunity for nurturance, reassurance of worth, sense of reliable alliance, and guidance in stressful situations, and on a distinction between direct and indirect social robots. Our examinations show that social robots could tackle both emotional and social loneliness in assisted living by empowering people to engage in different forms of social interaction inside and outside the facility. However, ethical concerns of objectification, lack of human contact, and deception need to be thoroughly considered when implementing social robots in care for frail older people.

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BACKGROUND: Digital technologies, including robots, are being increasingly used in elderly care. Their impact on users carries implications for successfully integrating technological innovations into care. This study aims to identify the impacts of care-robot implementation on elderly-care service stakeholders. METHODS: Impacts of care-robot implementation on users - care personnel and elderly clients - are identified from the data collected during a 10-week field study of the implementation process of the care robot 'Zora' in municipal elderly care services in Finland. The data were obtained from semi-participatory observation (27 sessions) of the robot engaging in rehabilitation efforts in two care homes and a geriatric rehabilitation hospital, and focus-group interviews conducted with 40 care workers and clients. RESULTS: Robot use in elderly care is associated with multiple types of impacts with positive, negative, and neutral dimensions. These include impacts on interaction and activity for clients, and impacts on the work atmosphere, meaningfulness of work content, and professional development for care personnel. Impacts on personnel were related to the need for orientation, problems of time usage, and overall attitudes toward novelty and renewing of care service. The robot's presence stimulated the clients into exercising and interacting. The care workers perceived the clients' well-being both as a motivation to learn how to use robots as well as a justification for negative views. CONCLUSIONS: Care-robots like Zora have the potential for multi-faceted rehabilitative functions and can become part of care service with careful systemic planning with a specific focus on orientation. Many of the identified impacts were related to how the robot fits into the service processes. Distinguishing between positive, negative, or neutral dimensions of different impacts is important.

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BACKGROUND: Social enterprises are often seen as a source of new and innovative solutions to persistent societal problems and a means for better inclusion of employees and customers. Because social enterprises combine business logic and social goals, they have vast potential to renew business and social life; therefore, it is vital to understand how their creation can be initiated and supported. OBJECTIVE: This study provides an overview of the participatory design process for a new social enterprise as it appears in practice. METHODS: The methods used in this case study guided the participants - mental health and substance abuse rehabilitees - in the co-creation and refinement of a business idea. The methods used enabled participants to acknowledge their own strengths or preferences for their potential future work, which was a unique means of establishing a new social enterprise. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Social empowerment of the participants/future employees of the social enterprise formed the important, intangible capital in this case. By definition, the core of social enterprises is the customer- and employee-driven nature. This study clarifies how a social enterprise functions as a laboratory of social innovation at the local and community levels.

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OBJECTIVE: The study investigates ways in which technology use may help municipalities improve productivity in elderly-care services. A case study of Finnish elderly-care services provides responses concerning impacts, decisions and options in technology use. METHODS: The research data were collected during a 'smart home pilot' implemented in four housing service units. Over 60 assistive devices were introduced in the smart homes used during short-term housing periods. PARTICIPANTS: Both customers and care staff's experiences as well as processes related to the use of assistive devices were investigated on the basis of survey questionnaires, interviews and feedback. RESULTS: Assistive device-related operational processes were investigated with the help of concepts of 'resource focus', 'lost motion' and 'intermediate storage'. Four central operational processes were identified. Design and desirability as well as costs, such as opportunity costs of assistive devices were also a focus. Significant factors related to productivity were disclosed in this way. CONCLUSIONS: Technology use versus productivity needs to be 'circled' from the points of view of individual users, workplaces, service processes, and larger technology options. There must be long-term patience to introduce technology properly into use to produce positive impacts on productivity. Customers and care staff have an interlinked, vital role to play as decision-makers' informants.

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OBJECTIVE: This article explores the use of information and communication technologies including safety alarm technologies and their impacts on elderly-care organizations' informational ecology, or internal information environment. Results are reported from a case study on the use of safety telephones and high-tech well-being wristbands that monitor vital signs in Finnish elderly-care organizations. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: Data collection involved human impact assessment methodologies including interviews and longer-term assessment processes among 78 care workers at 8 workplaces offering sheltered accommodation. The assessment results were analyzed qualitatively, also with the help of the concept of information quality. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Changes in the informational ecology were identified; informational ecology in a care unit is in many ways affected by technology use. The human impact assessment methodologies and the topic of information quality offered useful and novel points of view about daily care work in increasingly technological environments.

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