Eu funded development projects

Satakunta University of Applied Sciences administers and implements the following development projects in the field of social services and health care:

User-centered building environment – research project (in Finnish KÄKI)

In this project the usefulness of new technology in service-center environments of elderly is studied. The environments are at the same time residential environments for senior citizens and working environment for staff. The aim of the project is to develop user-centered building environment that can be used to enhance security, usability and comfort of the living.

In building environment application-specific sensor network is used to monitor and control equipments and conditions, at the same time RFID is used to identify the users. Location information and automatic user identification is used to provide autonomic user specific environment, where user does not need control remote units. The new achievement is to combine and study both building and welfare technology. Usability studies to find out the clients and service providers experiences of new technical solutions are carried out.

Multidisciplinary research is done together with Tampere Technical University and Satakunta University of Applied Sciences. Partners in this research project are many both from private and public sector; Pori Regional Development Agency POSEK Ltd., City of Rauma, Porin Palvelukiinteistöt, Bitec Oy, Riffid Oy, Tunstall Oy, Esperi Care Oy, Wiktio Oy, TappIT Oy, and Pappilanlampi Service Center for Elderly. The companies and organizations have a possibility to acquire information and research results to develop their products and services.

SATAESTEETÖN

The Sataesteetön development project focusing on innovation prerequisites involves specialists and students from the faculties of social services and health care, business administration and technology of the Satakunta University of Applied Sciences as well as participants from a business network. The objective of the project is to develop new user-oriented innovative products and services supporting barrier-free living. Another objective is to launch international cooperation for promoting barrier-free living with various partner universities conducting accessibility-related research.
The focus of this project is to develop an accessible and barrier-free home, which serves as an innovative environment for universities, research institutions, companies and communities of the region. In Accessible Home, disabilities are simulated by presenting these to a person participating in the accessibility research. The test-users of the project can test the innovations promoting barrier-free living, either by themselves or with an assistant. Another objective is to develop unrestricted travelling and leisure activities in the Satakunta region. The project participants also examine awareness of accessibility issues among service providers and develop competence in relation to these issues.

TYTTI

Satakunta University of Applied Sciences and WinNova (West Coast Education Ltd) work in close cooperation in Tytti project, in which project, research and development is oriented towards meeting the needs of small and medium-sized companies as well as employees operating in the welfare field in the Satakunta region. Project issues include such as well-being at work and competence development. Another objective is to develop entrepreneurial orientations in social services and health care education. Company visits have paid off and a number of different companies in the social service and health care field have been introduced to the project. At best, this cooperation creates regional networks between the Satakunta University of Applied Sciences, different vocational institutes and companies. The project is developed in view of the entrepreneurial approach. Students offer various kinds of welfare services, which are provided either in these companies or in the school environment. There are also various kinds of lectures offered for the companies. The topics of these lectures include such as coping at work, pampering and health surveys.

TYÖMIELI, Mood For Work -project

The objective of Työmieli (Mood for Work) project is to increase the awareness of companies operating in the Satakunta region of their opportunities for employing mental health rehabilitees. Through this project, employers will acquire information of rehabilitees as possible employees and find out about government subsidies for employing them. The employers also learn about best practices. An essential part of the work consists of personal consultations for the employers, which include advice on recruitment and development work within employment networks. The university works in cooperation with employers and different authorities (rehabilitation centres, Social Insurance Institution of Finland Kela, and employment administration) for creating a new guidance and education model for employers and rehabilitee job applicants to support the employment of special groups. www.tyomieli.fi

SENTTERI

In Sentteri project, a new way of networking and learning together is used to coordinate the development of elderly services in the Satakunta region. The objective of this project is to create new innovative services, to increase product development, and to diffuse best practices and evidence-based information.

SUBSTITUTECARE

Funded by the Leonard da Vinci programme, Substitutecare was a two-year project focused on the development of education and working life. The project included partners from both child welfare alternative care services and the educational sector in the field of social services from Finland, Italy, Estonia and Great-Britain.