Recipes for Systemic Change - Helsinki Design Lab

specifics of the potential resident’s physical and mental condition, or thefunctional capacity.Residence within such a facility generally becomes more expensive,complex, and restrictive as the individual’s independence declines. Asof 2005, 6.9% of the Finnish population over sixty-five was dependent oninstitutional care and services; this figure is the smallest among the Nordiccountries, with Sweden at 7.0%, and Norway, with 11.7% (Facts about Socialand Health Care).Service HousingAn elderly person residing outside the home may chose between twoprimary types of care facilities: Service housing (or sheltered housing), isone type of residence in which a full suite of care and services are available(on demand); in some cases such care is provided on a 24-hour basisin those facilities that offer more intensive care. Service housing exists asindividual, clusters, or entire blocks of such apartments.As of 2007, approximately 29,300 people sixty-five and over lived inordinary service housing, while 2.3% lived in 24-hour service housing (StatisticalYearbook). This percentage has steadily increased, having more thandoubled from 2000 to 2007 (Statistical Yearbook. During the past decade,this 24-hour type of institutional care is the only one to have experiencedan increase in Finland. It is also a relatively new form of care that yet to beofficially defined.Institutional HousingAn elderly person in need of the most complex or comprehensive integratedcare may chose to live in an institutional environment. Such institutionsoffer part-time, short-term, or long-term care, and include nursinghomes, general health centres, and specialized health facilities. An individualthat typically enters such a facility due to specific medical and socialconditions that demand a very particular forms of institutional care.For example, most nursing homes and health centres have a significantlong-term population that is suffering from dementia, which is very prevalentamongst the oldest of the ageing population (10.7% of those over seventy-fiveand 35% of those over eighty in Finland (Health in Finland)). As of2005, 45% of the patients in nursing homes, and over 53% of the long-termpatients in health centres, suffered from dementia (Statistical Yearbook).These residents live within special parts of the institutions that have beendesigned to accommodate the particular needs associated with dementia.289