Responsibilities between the church and state in the field of elderly care in Finland

Abstract

In the coming years, Finland will be faced with the challenges of an ageing population, including a rapid increase in the need of resources required for their care and support. Elderly care is being reformed in the Finnish society and the third sector, including religious institutions, it is considered to create opportunities to address problems in the current economic situation. This paper will focus on how public sector social workers define the role of church diaconal work performed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (ELCF) in the field of elderly services. The data were collected from 10 theme-based interviews conducted in 2009 with public sector social workers who worked with the elderly. Using frame analysis as a methodological tool, three frames were formed: ‘the Church providing psychosocial support’, ‘the Church organising communal activities’ and ‘the Church as safety net’. Analysing these frames through contractualism as a theoretical tool, it became clear they each represent a different form of contractual cooperation; these forms respectively being network, market and hierarchy. The results of this study suggest that social workers emphasize neutrality towards religious matters, but consider churches to be a trustworthy companion and are willing to transfer psychosocial support to the ELCF.

Keywords:

• Elderly care
• frame analysis
• contractualism
• diaconal work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In this article, we use the term of ‘diaconal work’ to refer to the work carried out by diaconal workers of ELCF and ‘social work’ to refer to the work carried out by those working in public sector social work. ‘Social services’ refers to public sector work.