Digitalization of elderly people’s home environments in Slovenia

The elderly would like to remain in their home environment and maintain their independence as long as possible. In modern digital society, this is made possible through digital technologies and systems that provide a variety of remote services and contacts to individuals in their homes and local environment. The services that are especially relevant to the elderly involve social assistance and healthcare, home care, safety, education, maintaining social contacts, community participation, transport, and so on. However, not only is digitalization of home environments important for the elderly, but it also provides many benefits to and, first and foremost, disburdens their family members as informal caregivers. It could also be of great significance to the entire society because, due to rapid population aging, the models of housing provision for the elderly that have predominated to date and largely relied on institutional care are no longer sustainable for society. Despite its advantages, digitalization of home environments of the elderly also has many limitations because it is often at odds with their needs, requirements, and capabilities. Consequently, acceptance of digital technologies and systems is (still) low among the elderly. The consequences of this came to the fore especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when physical social contact was disturbed or heavily restricted, and most communication, services, care, and work moved into the digital world, heavily accelerating the digitalization of society. In response to the pandemic crisis, EU countries adopted strategies for the speedy digital transformation of society. The Slovenian strategy provides that “digitalization is almost no longer a choice, but an expectation that is becoming a necessity.” This, however, is very alarming from the viewpoint of the elderly and their acceptance of digital technologies. With aging, the life of the elderly is increasingly centered around their home and its immediate surroundings, and so in the future increasingly more elderly people may become isolated and socially (and spatially) excluded from their local communities or home environments. The main objective of this research is thus to define approaches to digitalizing the home environments of the elderly in Slovenia based on the users’ viewpoints, needs, desires, perceptions, and capabilities, so that the elderly can accept digitalization as an opportunity for remaining independent and for quality aging in their homes and communities, and so that the planned digital transformation of Slovenian society is also successful in this area. To fulfill this objective, digitalization of the home environments of the elderly, its acceptance, and implementation in Slovenian society will be holistically studied—that is, from the perspective of various social areas (care, healthcare, safety, education, maintaining social contacts, participation, mobility, and services), from the perspective of users (the elderly and their informal caregivers), from the perspective of the influence of various social groups on elderly people’s decisions (relatives, neighbors, and the community), from the perspective of various demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the elderly (different age groups, education levels, financial status, etc.), from the perspective of supporting the elderly living in various living environments (in apartments, in the local community), from the perspective of various types of housing the elderly live in (an apartment in a multi-unit building, a house), and from the perspective of various areas in which the elderly live (urban vs. rural areas). The research will integrate various methods, such as surveys, participatory focus groups, in-depth interviews, and a concluding open democratic forum, to increase the added value of the research results.