Research project Ageing in place – from policy to practice

In recent decades, drastic reductions in municipal institutional care for older people have occurred in Sweden, driven by cost containment measures and by an ageing in place policy. Since year 2000, nearly 40 percent of the beds in municipal institutional care have disappeared. This entails an increasing proportion of frail older people being dependent on assistance in their own homes and an increase in care responsibilities for family members.

The aim of this project is to study the consequences of the de-institutionalisation of Swedish eldercare for older people and their family members. Following research questions will be answered:

1. What are the ideas, motives and driving forces behind the Swedish ageing in place policy and practice? A historical review and policy analysis study from 1950 to the present.
2. How has the length of stay in care homes changed in recent years? How have the eligibility criteria and individual characteristics for being admitted to municipal institutional care changed over time? 
3. How are rejections of applications for municipal institutional care motivated? How do those who get rejected, and their family members, handle their situation to meet their needs? 

There are no official statistics on rejections of applications for institutional care in Sweden. Municipal register data will be used to follow older people who had their applications for institutional care rejected. This allows for analysis of a ’core group’ of older people who are ageing in place against their will. By employing a mixed methods approach, combining municipal care system data with the richness of interviews with older people and their family members, we will be able to study the consequences of ageing in place from different perspectives. 

This project will generate new insights on the consequences of the ageing in place policy and practice, the most salient trend in Swedish elder care in the last two decades.