The centre is located both at Telemark University College,

Faculty of Health and Social Studies in Porsgrunn and the University in Agder,Faculty og Health and Sports Studies in Arendal. It covers the region consisting of the counties of Vest-Agder, Aust-Agder, Telemark, Vestfold and Buskerud.

The research is concentrated around the following three main areas:

The community level
The focus will be on conditions for good quality in the services offered by the Care Services, and the user-oriented and contextual conditions for such quality. Focus will also be on how the conditions for Municipal Care Services are shaped by Health- and Social Policy.

Topics include:

• Recruitment
• Raising the level of competence
• Management
• Leadership
• Organisation and cooperation

The Cultural level

A central research topic will be active care and volunteer service. The focus is on user-oriented cultural activities that are rooted in organisations, with emphasis on measures and activities where the professional apparatus and the civil society are assisting users, and that are directed towards the existential and social conception of meaning by the users of Municipal Care Services.

The Personal level

Examples of central topics are:

• The health and living conditions of the elderly and persons with long-time illness
• Care to dementia patients
• Mental Health
• Palliative Care
• ICT-based Care

The three areas reflect a desire of obtaining a better perspective, where the management processes are seen in relation to how care is designed and practised in day-to-day activities. The levels also reflect the shared expertise that TUC and UiA has. TUC has its strenght in research in the social- and cutural dimension, and UiA has its strenght in research on the personal level and in clinical research.