Beyond Metrics: Reinforcing Human-Centered Ageing

Finland’s ageing population is challenging the coordination of the current care system. While medical data is being stored and collected, information about the social aspects of ageing still struggles to enter the system. In this scenario, integrating social and health care is the direction to take, ensuring continuity of knowledge to support this demographic shift.

A Case for Intergenerational Civic Engagement

After engaging with officials from the Open Government Finland initiative, and the Helsinki Elderly Citizens Council, an exercise of systems analysis was a great way to understand the phenomenon of Aging Population with relation to Open Government in Finland. Reframing the aging population as an opportunity for intergenerational collaboration, rather than a crisis, reveals untapped opportunities.

Fragmentation to Orchestration: Rethinking Open Government’s Role

Our project reimagines Open Government Finland as an orchestrator of action coherence, ensuring that insights from diverse stakeholders—municipalities, civil society, and citizens—translate into meaningful governance. We explore strategies to enhance participation, strengthen feedback loops, and drive impactful, transparent decision-making.

Bridging Healthcare Gaps: The Role of Social Workers in Continuity of Knowledge

Finland’s ageing population demands a more innovative, more connected healthcare system, but a fragmented system threatens patient care in Finland. As a continuation of the first blog post, this one focuses more on systems in healthcare. In our conclusion, social workers hold the key to bridging gaps between medical, social, and informal care.

Design & Healthcare Reform: How Does One Even Get Started?

Admist increasing healthcare costs, a shrinking tax base to fund healthcare, an aging population that will demand more health services, continuity of care is a proposed model to make healthcare more efficiently able to cope with the future. Underpinning continuity of care is the continuity of knowledge and information and how it is structured.

Happy patients, not so-happy doctors?

This blog entry summarises findings concerning healthcare reform “SOTE” and a new General Practitioner model. The short text provides reasons for both changes introduced by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health & Finnish Government highlighting its positive and negative implications. Ultimately, an uncomfortable, speculative question emerges: Might these changes neglect doctors’ well-being?

From overload to charging — Getting used to upstream thinking

The first blog post explores the context-setting stage of the Open Government project, focusing on the role of the ageing population and public service in Finnish governance. It highlights the challenges of the negative perception of elderly citizens and barriers to their political participation. The post also reflects on understanding policy language and upstream thinking to create impactful proposals.

Fumbling for a way forward to digitalization: Care – Digitalization and Kanta

The first blog of the Digitalization and Kanta Workstream presents an initial understanding of Finland’s and international digital healthcare services through desktop research. The importance of initiative for both the users and the providers, the inclusiveness for ageing groups in digitalization, and the focus of Kanta as a centralization platform is addressed.

From Voices to Action: Rethinking Elderly Participation

This blog explores how policies transform into real engagement under the topic of elderly participation initiatives. However, a heated meeting in Vantaa revealed the challenge: how can elderly participation truly engage in decision-making? Key organizations include the Finnish Ministry of Finance, City of Helsinki, City of Vantaa, and Elderly Citizens Council.