Social Assistance, Services and Benefits in Health and Social Services Integration
The social assistance, services and benefits in health and social services integration (ToituAvain) research entity provides information on the use of and need for last-resort security among adult social work clients. The study examines the use of social assistance by adult social work clients, the goals set in social work with the client, the practices of data transfer, the bottlenecks in receiving multidisciplinary support, and the co-operation models between Kela and municipalities. The data used are the data in Kela’s social assistance register and the data stored in the customer information systems of municipalities. The project is led by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, and the project leader is Minna Kivipelto. Kela and the University of Eastern Finland are involved in the project. The project is funded by the Foundation for Municipal Development (KAKS) and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
Researchers
- Signe Jauhiainen, Leading Researcher
- Hanna-Mari Heinonen
- Tuija Korpela
- Antti Teittinen
Project Implementation Period
1.8.2022–31.12.2023. The project has concluded.
Project Results
A joint effort of Kela, the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare and University of Eastern Finland, the project ‘Social assistance, services and benefits in integrated social and health services’ (ToituAvain) looked at clients’ need for social assistance and for guidance and counselling from social workers, their personal goals, and the availability and adequacy of services and benefits. The project also examined the cooperation between Kela and the social work sector.
Kela works together with the social services in providing assistance to social assistance clients. Kela and the municipal social services have developed a variety of different approaches to cooperation designed to improve and streamline the work with social assistance clients. The most common type of cooperation is one where a customer service specialist from Kela and a social service professional take a joint look at the client’s situation with the client’s permission. Consultations about individual clients are common as well.
Together with municipal social service professionals, Kela has put together a checklist for identifying service needs among clients and for referring them to social services. This model was found to have many similarities with the AVAIN indicator used in social services for people of working age.
The transfer of social services to the wellbeing services counties may have put a stop to well-established collaboration practices. At the same time, some wellbeing services counties are equivalent to the health and social services centres that preceded them, in which case there may have been little disruption.
