Educational Challenges in Integrating Healthcare and Social Services: The Case of the University of Tartu Pärnu College in Designing a Master’s Programme in Person-Centred Social Innovation

To provide people with consistent healthcare services and the best social support, a variety of factors are important, in particular a human-centred and holistic approach, as well as the need to reduce duplication of data collection and improve collaboration between different areas of healthcare and the social welfare system. However, encouraging people to participate actively in preventive health activities is equally important. Primary services are often not delivered on time and ultimately, more expensive services are consumed—in terms of both the money and time of patients and therapeutic resources. The reason is believed to lie in service providers focusing mainly on standardized services, thus leaving more sophisticated, as well as the issues that need to be combined between several parties, to be decided and organized by individuals. To change mindsets and behaviour patterns from a disease- or problem-oriented approach to a person-centred approach, it is essential to modify and offer comprehensive services to patients. However, there is still little research and few examples on how to educate and train professionals with new skills and knowledge. To facilitate that change, the University of Tartu Pärnu College has developed a new master’s programme with the purpose of preparing and educating professionals, including case managers, in the social service sector. These are people who understand the principles of human-centred service design, comprehend the significance of collaboration between different specialities, fields and levels of decision-making, and who use contemporary ways of involving different parties in holistic service design. This chapter will provide an overview about decoding the human-centred healthcare and social welfare services, the need for educated social work professionals and about the development process of the master’s programme ‘Person-Centred Social Innovation’ at the University of Tartu Pärnu College, which incorporated the principles of service design throughout the whole development process of the curriculum, including practical examples.