[Digital platforms to place informal helpers for home care: what benefits do providers see?] / Digitale Plattformen zur Vermittlung informell Helfender für die häusliche Pflege: Welchen Nutzen sehen Anbieter?

BACKGROUND: Little is known so far about the actual benefits of digital platforms that mediate volunteer helpers with households facing care responsibilities. OBJECTIVE: This article presents the initial results of a survey conducted among placement agencies as part of a multistage organized interview study. The key question is what benefits do agencies ascribe to the services in their own organization for the users and on a societal or sociospatial level. MATERIAL AND METHODS: For the purpose of conducting explorative guideline-based interviews, four placement agencies were selected. Of these, two use a matching platform and two do not. The data were analyzed using content analysis methods. RESULTS: The providers perceive advantages in efficiency, improvements in quality but also new possibilities for harnessing new helper clientele as important beneficial aspects of using digital placement platforms for their own organization. In terms of nurturing users' trust and acceptance, hybrid matching models appear to be particularly advantageous by deploying digital technologies and also enabling personal support in developing helping relationships. The findings also suggest that public welfare-oriented, quality-assured matching platforms can unfurl additional benefits at sociospatial and societal levels. CONCLUSION: Besides beneficial aspects for organizations and users it was also possible to reconstruct potential benefits in relation to local care networks.

[Sociotechnical innovations for caring communities : Conditions for success in participatory and integrative technology development]. / Soziotechnische Innovationen für Sorgegemeinschaften : Gelingensbedingungen für partizipative und integrative Technikentwicklung.

The increasing need for nursing support in the home environment is accompanied by a decline in the willingness and possibilities for family care (among other things, due to social fragmentation and individualization). New forms of social support networks (caring communities) are therefore needed in which professional players collaborate together with informal caregivers and volunteer helpers. In this context, digitalization can be an instrument that can support the design and coordination of care arrangements for older people at the sociospatial level; however, a fundamental prerequisite is that the corresponding technologies are developed in a participatory manner and integrated into existing structures. This means not only that the needs and requirements of future users are comprehensively included in the developmental process but also that they become active co-decision makers. Furthermore, the developed technology should be oriented to established care structures and sociospatial conditions. This conceptual contribution addresses these two requirements and uses a concrete case study from a participatory technology development project to show how sociotechnical innovations for and with caring communities can be developed, implemented and made usable in such a way that they become sustainably effective.