Self-Organizing Teams in Elderly Care in Finland: Experiences and Opportunities

Abstract

Health and social care for older people in Finland is increasingly provided in people’s homes, leading to large caseloads of high-dependency patients for providers of home care, whose working conditions have deteriorated. Buurtzorg, a model of home care in the Netherlands that empowers caregivers to organize their own work processes, has shown promising results in terms of effectiveness and satisfaction of clients and caregivers. This article aims to provide insights about the challenges and effects of implementing self-organizing teams in three Finnish public health and social care organizations.