Teppo Kröger, University of Jyväskylä
Sirpa Wrede, University of Helsinki

The Centre of Excellence in Research on Ageing and Care (CoE AgeCare), which is the main organiser of the 7th Transforming Care Conference, is one of the 12 Centres of Excellence funded by the Research Council of Finland for the period 2018–2025. CoEs are large-scale research investments that are considered to be at the cutting edge of research in their fields, carving out new avenues for research, developing creative research environments and innovations, and training new talented researchers. CoE AgeCare is the first Finnish Centre of Excellence to focus its research on ageing and care.

Now that CoE AgeCare is coming to the end of its term, it is time to look at some of its key research findings. CoE AgeCare is organised around four collaborating research groups based at the Universities of Jyväskylä, Helsinki and Tampere. This symposium will present the research carried out in each group. The key feature of the work of CoE AgeCare has been to approach care as a multidimensional issue, and thus to study different forms of care in relation to national and international care policies, population ageing, the agency of older people, the increasing digitalization of societies, as well as increasing migration. Care poverty, that is, the lack of adequate care and support for older people, has been one of the key themes, together with trends in care policies, agency in decision-making about care and the living environment, health and functioning of the ageing population, the relationship between migration backgrounds and vulnerability of older people, and the digital transformation of care work and the everyday lives of older people.

The symposium will highlight key findings from this research. The speakers of the symposium are leaders of the four research groups of CoE AgeCare.

Papers:

The ageing population, health and functioning, professor Marja Jylhä, Tampere University

International trends and issues in care policy, professor Teppo Kröger, University of Jyväskylä

The relationship between migration backgrounds and vulnerability of older people, professor Sirpa Wrede, University of Helsinki

Digitalisation, ageing and care, professor Sakari Taipale, University of Jyväskylä

Discussant:

Professor emerita Gabrielle Meagher, University of Sydney