The paper presents a reflection on the social innovation of home care services for not
self-sufficient older people, starting from the first insights of a qualitative evaluation
research of a three-year experimentation of a new model of service promoted by Friuli
Venezia Giulia Region to contrast institutionalization. This model is based on personalized
intervention, citizens’ participation and co-production, and personal budget. According to
this research, innovation is considered a process of change promoted and sustained by a
specific cultural orientation (Moralli 2019), as an increase of social and political rationality
(Donolo e Fichera1988) based on an ideational and cognitive dimension (Bifulco 2009;
2017). For this study, fifteen semi-structured interviews were performed with coordinators
of home care assistance and managers of health and social services who were involved in
the experimentation to collect their ideas and understand their perspectives on it. The
outcomes validate interviewers’ inclination to see innovation with pre-existing cognitive
categories reproducing old modalities to organize services. Hence, the paper highlights
the importance of accompanying innovation with learning activities aimed at promoting
and addressing subjects’ reflectivity through the expected change.
