BACKGROUND: Advancing informal caregivers' and recipients' health and functional capacity and enabling living at home are significant objectives in Finnish society. The purpose of this project is to create a model for supporting the welfare services of informal caregivers digitally. METHOD: The data were collected in late 2017 by interviewing the informal caregivers (N = 19) who took part in the project in one city (n = 9) and one rural municipality (n = 10). They filled the 15D quality of life instrument with added questions before and after intervention and evaluated the digital service after seven months of piloting. The recipients (n = 19) also filled a questionnaire on a memory game device. RESULTS: Informal caregivers considered their quality of life good, though approximately half felt mildly depressed and distressed. Their wishes for tablet programs included peer support, lectures, and live entertainment. Nearly all caregivers recommended the digital service to others despite technical problems. The difficulty of the game divided the recipients' opinions. A functional service model is presented as a summary of the project. CONCLUSIONS: It is paramount to move the entire service to a single platform with large shortcuts to each segment. This will enable the user to easily use the programs and contact people.

The low appeal of nursing is currently a challenge in Finland and many other countries. Retaining factors that would keep nurses within the field have been discussed, as have attracting factors that would draw new workers to the field. Finnish discourse often focuses on the heaviness of nursing, shift work, bad leadership and low work wellbeing. The last can be influenced by many things, such as the use of humor. Workplaces can learn to use positive humor, which raises spirits and increases a sense of community. The purpose of this study was to survey fun workplace experiences in the social and health care field and what was learned from them. As there has been little research on the use of humor in social and health care work in Finland, the aim of this study is to increase knowledge and discussion of the topic. The study was conducted in 2016-2017 by collecting narratives (N=34) from master’s degree students in Leadership. The data were analyzed through inductive content analysis. Fun experiences in personnel leadership showed and reinforced social capital and a sense of community at the workplace. The sense of community included developing workplace community skills, maintaining a sense of togetherness, advancing workplace well-being and doing activities, spending time and using professional skills together. Learning from fun experiences through reflection was formed from leadership that increases workplace well-being. This consisted of four categories: reinforcing a fun work atmosphere, reinforcing togetherness, appreciative leadership and the multiplicity of the supervisor’s role. Positive humor can be used to advance workplace well-being and personnel retention. Keywords: leadership, humor, work well-being, experience-based learning, Finland

The project was cooperative, dialogic and research-assisted in nature and its goal was to increase productivity, well-being at work, cost-efficiency and competitiveness in participating companies (N=11). This article focuses on the results of two care companies that took part in the project. The research question is: What kind of effect did the project have on employees' well-being? The data were gathered through an electronic questionnaire that was filled out by the personnel at the beginning and at the end of the project. The response rate was 65% (n=65) at the initial measurement and 54% (n=54) at the final measurement. The questionnaire consisted of more than 150 statements of which 62 measuring well-being at work were selected for this study. The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS. There was a statistically significant change in employees' well-being between the initial and final measurements. Respondents in the final measurement estimated that the project had positively affected communication (55%), performing the basic tasks (53%), well-being at work (52%), development at the workplace (50%), interpersonal relationships and atmosphere (49%) and relationship between employees and employers (49%). Employees' joy of working was strongly correlated with versatility and clear distribution of work whereas lack of opportunities to affect the working pace and the prevalence of gossiping within the work community were associated with employees' increased mental workload.

The public sector is the largest producer of services for the elderly in Finland. The public elderly care management system has been criticized for having too many managers and levels. On the basis of the Finnish recommendation (MSAH 2013a), chief managers are responsible for the appropriate organization of the work, the reform of working practices and staff skills, the well-being and safety of the employees, the participatory management style, the management of multi-professional teams and a flexible allocation of the staff as needed. The present study aims to address this question: How do chief managers perceive their work image now and in the future? The study was undertaken at two Finnish public and two private nursing homes during the autumn of 2014. Data consisted of semi-structured interviews with four chief managers, analysed using the content analysis method. The job consisted of power and responsibility issues, preparing and executing decisions and participating in meetings. They reported that their jobs are multi-dimensional and demanding, and they are constantly working overtime. No matter how much they do, they feel inadequate. The chief managersʼ work is complex and fragmented. The ability to prepare for the future requires considerable attention, as it directly affects the reputation of the nursing home, which is difficult to recover. Reputation building includes the management, which is based on the values that appear in everyday work. Finlandʼs rapidly diversifying population is a great challenge for which the countryʼs health care system is not prepared. Future challenges in health care are divided into three main categories: the adequacy of resources (economic and human), the renewal of the service structure (legal obligations and their fulfillment), and the ability to prepare for social change (reputation building, internationalization and multicultural competence).

The purpose of this study is to describe the views of immigrants on outside home activities and the support they have received. The data were collected via semi- structured questionnaires (n=113) during 2019 and analysed using statistical methods. The open questions were subjected to thematic analysis. The respondents’ mean age was 41 and they came from 29 countries. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents participated actively in an association or group. Participation had a positive correlation with their ability to speak and understand Finnish. A principal component analysis performed on the causes hindering participation produced seven factors, which explain 70% of the phenomena. The greatest causes were: 1) cultural rules, 2) fears and lack of skills, 3) lack of a computer and computer skills, 4) lack of time, 5) the costliness, 6) food and customs culture and 7) lack of a car. Causes supporting participation produced two factors: 1) Finnish friends, neighbours, authorities, other immigrants and study and work friends and 2) one’s own parents and family. This study reinforces earlier results about the advantages of participating in activities in learning the language and integrating into the culture and the environment of the new country. Keywords: asylum seekers, integration, immigrants, outside home activities, third sector