DEBATE POSTS: The government has announced a new elderly law that regulates less and gives employees a better opportunity to use their professionalism, and so that citizens experience self-determination and dignity.
The Council of the Elderly has seized on this offer, which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Minister of Social Affairs and the Elderly Astrid Krag have thrown up on the table. It is a new way of doing elderly care, where the citizen comes far more in the center as a human being and citizen and not as a weak patient.
The task is to set senior citizens free to live the life they want.
As a mouthpiece for senior citizens, we want to maintain and clarify the target group for whom the Elderly Act is for. This is in line with the fact that we want the new Elderly Act to be developed based on the issues and solutions that are worked on in the municipalities, and that the citizen's perspective becomes governing in accordance with the sections of the Service Act.
The elderly care of the future requires a high level of professionalism on the part of the individual employee. It requires present management, and it requires financial management. It can be considered whether elderly care nationally must be ISO-certified according to adapted rules.
If care for the elderly is to be based on such a foundation of mutual trust, it requires a fundamental change in the way in which the municipalities organize the help, and the way in which the help is examined, as well as the way in which senior citizens perceive quality.
The central question should be how we can set the individual citizen free, and how we can create a care for the elderly that meets the individual elderly person with confidence and curiosity and with dignity and self-determination. An improvement can take place through the development of the same employees in self-governing teams, in nursing homes, in home care and in residences for different target groups. The improvement can e.g. completed by further education and by peer training.
There is a need for a new view of people in elderly care. Municipalities must go from seeing senior citizens as a task in the form of services and minutes to seeing senior citizens as they are and letting their wants and needs be governing.
The Council of the Elderly in Aarhus Municipality recommends:
- Show confidence that senior citizens are experts in their own lives and those closest to them know their individual needs.
- Show confidence that even though senior citizens are experts in their own lives, they know very well that they are not experts in the various solutions, and therefore they listen to professional guidance from employees.
- Show confidence that senior citizens, in consultation with their next of kin, will not ask for more, but perhaps something other than what the municipality deems they need.
- Show confidence in the relatives' role in the collaboration on the elderly's life situation. In dialogue between the municipality and relatives, many misunderstandings can be avoided, and opportunities can be created for a safe and trusting collaboration.
If care for the elderly is to be based on such a foundation of mutual trust, it requires a fundamental change in the way in which the municipalities organize the help, and the way in which the help is examined, as well as the way in which senior citizens perceive quality.
- This presupposes that the municipalities must provide elderly care, where the individual experiences coherence in their course, where decisions about help are made in an equal collaboration between citizens, relatives, employees and management, and where quality is measured on the effect for the citizen and not on delivered. services.
- This presupposes that the municipalities must be aware of always ensuring the legal requirements of the elderly. This can be done through improved supervision of the methods used both in home care and in nursing homes. Accidental events, e.g. with the wrong medication, should have consequences. It can be a break from parts of the job of peer training, or it can be in the form of better learning opportunities in general.
- This presupposes that the municipalities can attract and retain the necessary workforce by implementing different retention policies: For example, by paying special attention to the basic salary and by means of new ways of remuneration, constant focus on a better working environment, ongoing focus on good management and the importance of management for a good municipal offer.
The Council of the Elderly in Aarhus Municipality often sees that the Health Act and the Service Act conflict with each other. This is done by the citizens being discharged from the hospital prematurely and the municipalities and the general practitioners not being geared for continued treatment of the citizens. It should be possible to resolve this in the legislative work
