JU researcher lecture during Kamprad Family Foundation's 10th anniversary

On November 8-9, the Kamprad Family Foundation for Entrepreneurship, Research and Charity hosted an educational conference in Växjö, to celebrate 10 years of the foundation. One of eight invited researchers and lecturers to the conference was Sofi Fristedt, from the School of Health and Welfare at Jönköping University.

The educational conference in Växjö began on 8 November with a panel discussion, in which a group of eight researchers presented their respective research areas and discussed future research needs, together with six members from the Kamprad Family Foundation. The conversation was moderated by the Swedish journalist Claes Elfsberg.

“It is quite rare for researchers to be invited to take part int this kind of dialogue, and it was much appreciated. We had a very interesting and rewarding discussion, and I had the opportunity to describe significant knowledge gaps in my research area, regarding digital technology for the elderly and the elderly care. Digital technology comes with both challenges and simplifications for its users. One issue, which is also quite surprising, is that the primary users of welfare technology, that is, elderly people and their care staff, are usually not involved in the development of these tools,” says Sofi Fristedt.

On 9 November, the researchers each gave their respective lectures on three separate occasions to an audience that, in total, amounted to 300 people. Sofi Fristedt's lecture focused on the user perspective on welfare technology for the elderly and addressed the issue of how, in the future, it should be developed together with elderly people and their nursing staff.

“There is a great interest in this field, and several of the members of the audience described challenges with using digital technology in their professional lives linked to, among other things, user integrity and vulnerability, and not least user-friendliness. There is an excess of different technological solutions, but they are not always adapted for the right target group. Therefore, there are many questions from the staff about how to think when choosing the right tool, as the range and options are often greater than the resources that will finance the technology,” says Sofi Fristedt.

The target group for the lectures was mainly staff from retirement homes and home care services in the Småland area, but also representatives from senior citizen associations and business developers from municipalities, as well as the civil sector. The knowledge day ended with a panel discussion in which the researchers who had lectured during the day participated. The conversation focused on their respective research areas from a practical perspective, it was also moderated by Claes Elfsberg.

Read more about the Family Kamprad Foundation via this link (in Swedish) External link, opens in new window..

Read more about Sofi's research within the GenerationTech project, which sheds light on three generations' attitudes to technology for active and healthy aging, and the Welfare @ home project, which is funded by the Kamprad Family Foundation and based on GenerationTech here External link, opens in new window..