Future Care Work: Exploring bottom-up and top-down innova- tions to alleviate care crisis

CAREFUTURE (Future Care Work) is a multidisciplinary research project that addresses the growing care crisis in Finland, characterized by increasing care demands, workforce shortages, and high staff turnover in health and social care services. The project explores how citizen- and employee-driven innovations, together with organizational, AI-based, and policy-driven solutions, can contribute to more sustainable and attractive care work. Special attention is given to innovation, ethical use of artificial intelligence, workforce wellbeing, and the development of long-term solutions that strengthen the sustainability and resilience of the care sector.

Finland is facing a serious care crisis characterized by increasing care demands, labour shortages, and high turnover among health and social care workers. At the same time, population ageing is creating growing pressure on care services and workforce availability. Although various technological, organizational, and policy innovations are being introduced, their combined impact and interactions within the care system remain insufficiently understood. The CAREFUTURE project addresses this challenge by investigating how employee-driven, citizen-driven, organizational, AI-based, and policy-driven innovations can help alleviate the care crisis and support the long-term sustainability of health and social care services.

The aim of the CAREFUTURE project is to better understand the root causes of the care crisis and to develop solutions that address workforce shortages and high staff turnover in health and social care services. The project explores how employee-driven, citizen-driven, organizational, AI-based, and policy-driven innovations can improve workforce wellbeing, increase the attractiveness of care work, and support the development of sustainable care services. In addition, the project evaluates the ethical implications of innovations and develops frameworks for their responsible use in the care sector.

The CAREFUTURE project generates new knowledge on how employee-driven, citizen-driven, organizational, AI-based, and policy-driven innovations can help address workforce shortages and improve working conditions in health and social care. The project supports workforce wellbeing, staff retention, the attractiveness of care work, and the responsible adoption of ethical innovations. In addition, it strengthens the innovation capacity of the care sector and contributes to the development of sustainable, effective, and future-oriented care services in Finland.

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