In Finland, policy and strategies on social welfare services and health care are intertwined. Finnish social and health policy aims at extending people's active and healthy life, ensuring the best possible quality of life for all and reducing differences in health between different population groups. Government-approved Target and Action Programme for 2000-2003 (TATO) is the official paper defining the targets and the recommendations for supporting actions in the social and health care. The National Committee for the Strategy for Utilising of ICT in Social Welfare and Heath Care (The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health 1996) proposed a new citizen centred care model of seamless services, in which the present organisational and information barriers are made invisible and the client will be an active partner.
The State plays a relatively strong role in social and health care sector by setting core principles and monitoring the implementation of them. However, the responsibility for organising and financing public health care and social welfare services is mainly vested on the local level, in municipalities. Various stakeholders are involved in national committees. For instance the planning and steering groups of TATO includes representatives from the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities, municipalities, provincial state offices, Stakes, National Public Health Institute and associations of welfare and health sector.
Family members are seen as an important source of support and assistance for older people. The planning of care services is still based on a universal service model of the welfare state, in which informal care have only a complementary role in care strategies. Supporting family care is a more important issue nowadays where the number of the aged is rising, but institutional care is decreasing and home care services do not always manage to bridge the gap. The municipality can support the care given by family members by paying a fee for the care and/or by arranging diverse social welfare and health services that support the care. ICT has not been much discussed in the context of family care.
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