Occupational Health and Safety Development Needs in the Home Care Sector in Finland

Due to demographic developments and the need for cost-effective solutions to provide social and health care services, home care has increased. At the same time, there is a shortage of personnel, partly due to unfavorable working conditions. In this study, occupational health and safety (OHS) development needs are identified by home care personnel. Material was gathered through a survey (n = 160), semi-structured interviews (n = 55), and workshops (n = 9) from spring to autumn 2022. The most commonly mentioned OHS development needs were assistive equipment and work tools, how the employee calls for and receives help in emergency situations, information about customer, education, filming employees, the home as a working environment, making sure that employees leave their customer visits safely, the organization of work, safety orientation, guidance and instructions, physical ergonomics, psychosocial, mental and ethical loads, and threats of physical and psychosocial violence. The results indicate that there has not been much improvement in home care working conditions, which is a major concern for the future when considering the growing need for home care services. Further research is needed to focus on the abovementioned themes and to develop effective intervention programs to make working conditions more desirable.