Journal Article

Digital platforms to place informal helpers for home care: what benefits do providers see?

Haushammer, Christian, Bernhard, Dominik, Geiselhart, Jochen, Wörle, Tobias

2023

Overview

Little is known so far about the actual benefits of digital platforms that mediate volunteer helpers with households facing care responsibilities. This article presents the initial results of a survey conducted among placement agencies as part of a multistage organized interview study. The key question is what benefits do agencies ascribe to the services in their own organization for the users and on a societal or sociospatial level. For the purpose of conducting explorative guideline-based interviews, four placement agencies were selected. Of these, two use a matching platform and two do not. The data were analyzed using content analysis methods. The providers perceive advantages in efficiency, improvements in quality but also new possibilities for harnessing new helper clientele as important beneficial aspects of using digital placement platforms for their own organization. In terms of nurturing users' trust and acceptance, hybrid matching models appear to be particularly advantageous by deploying digital technologies and also enabling personal support in developing helping relationships. The findings also suggest that public welfare-oriented, quality-assured matching platforms can unfurl additional benefits at sociospatial and societal levels. Besides beneficial aspects for organizations and users it was also possible to reconstruct potential benefits in relation to local care networks.

• Subject: Dashboard Systems / Home Care Services - organization & administration / Humans