The purpose of this paper is to report on current developments in user involvement in healthcare in Slovenia and to explore the issue from the macro-, mezzo- and micro-levels. User involvement is first contextualised within history of the organisation of healthcare system, from its socialist past through to its post-transitional developments. Second, user involvement is tracked through an analysis of healthcare policies and legislation as well as at its institutional and organisational levels. Finally, user involvement practices are illustrated from the perspective of individual patients. A descriptive and exploratory case study design was employed, including a literature review, document analysis and qualitative thematic analysis of nine in-depth and four semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal a complex and at times ambivalent picture in which user involvement is still not firmly embedded into the healthcare system, despite being generally accepted. No systematic qualitative research of patient involvement in Slovenia has previously been published. This research will establish a basis for further investigations of the topic.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4895083
With transition process in Slovenia, starting in 1991, also care for older people was considerably transformed. Policy measures and new services for older people living at home and their informal, mostly family, carers were the most essential contribution in this area. Social home care, as one of these services, is the focus of the paper. The first Slovenian representative survey of social home care users (2013) was used to assess the care arrangements among users of social home care. Multiple cluster analysis for symbolic data (no care, formal care only, informal care only, mixed care) carried out on 22 activities of daily living, discovered five groups of social home care users. Clusters were empirically aligned with availability of informal care network and need for care. Care arrangements empirically show compensatory and supplementary function of formal care in complementary model. Social home carer was the most frequently selected additional source of care in assessment of future need for care across all clusters, with informal network being the second most frequently selected source.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33410653
In this article we are analyzing the quality of social home care as it is perceived by the users of social home care. We therefore emphasize the role of community services in ensuring the quality of life of elderly, as well as the key role of users of services in evaluation of their quality (linked to empowerment perspective). We have used the model of evaluation accessibility of services, developed by Penchansky and Thomas (1981; 1984). The analysis is based on the first representative survey of users of social home care (2013). With hierarchical clustering method we have identified three groups of users which have distinguishing perception of quality of social home care.
COBISS.SI-ID: 33320541
Privatisation of a large share of the housing stock was characteristic of all central and eastern European countries, which left the majority of these countries with an impoverished social housing sector and therefore little opportunity for housing most vulnerable groups. Even though it was envisaged that this sector would gradually develop, this has not happened in Slovenia. This article analyses the acceptability of a limited number of alternative housing solutions. The alternatives were evaluated by applicants for social housing in the Municipality of Ljubljana. The survey was carried out by post and targeted unsuccessful applicants for social housing, with 1,048 respondents. On the basis of hierarchical cluster analysis,we identified three distinctive groups of applicants in relation to the acceptability of alternative housing options:those preferring shared home ownership (and social rental housing), those open to all alternatives, and those with a strong preference for social rental housing. Our findings thus demonstrate that applicants for housing vary significantly in their readiness and means to more actively engage in their housing solutions, but only if there are opportunities available.
COBISS.SI-ID: 2669507
The concept of empowerment is introducing a new perspective into discussion of social change. The paper is presenting the concept of empowerment in all its complexity; based on an overview of a large body of heterogeneous literature the following specific general features of empowerment as a concept and a practices were identified: its transformative, multy-level and context- dependent nature, heterogeniety of its practices and cooperation between actors as its pre-condition. Also the measuring of the phenomenon was discussed. In exploratory empirical analysis using Slovenian public opinion survey, selected preconditions of individual empowerment were observed; they were found weak in comparison to other countries, particularly the inclination to cooperate with others. Thus in Slovenia the potentials of empowerment as a specific transformative practice are found specifically and they call for further exploration.
COBISS.SI-ID: 4064712