Despite not being able to care for herself, 86-year-old Elsa was sent home after several surgeries. The municipality believed she should be able to manage with help from home care services, but reality turned out to be something completely different and now Elsa feels abandoned.
The surgeries for her broken leg took place in another municipality. Afterwards, she suffered from pain and did not feel strong enough to cope on her own and wanted a place in a short-term care facility. However, there are no longer any short-term care facilities in Karlstad municipality; they were removed after a health and social care committee decision to save money.
She does not understand the decision to be sent home directly.
– I can’t manage on my own. I can’t go to the bathroom or get myself food, so I have to push the alarm. I have to lie and suffer and keep pressing the alarm, but it takes a very long time before anyone comes, she told Nya Wermlands-Tidningen.
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The only thing left was to receive sporadic help from home care services and her life turned into a nightmare.
– I have to get up to go to the bathroom, but end up peeing in diapers. It’s so humiliating, not dignified, when two men come to clean me and change me in the middle of the night. Not one more night, I won’t go to bed. And I’m afraid to drink, because I don’t want to pee.
Ready to give up
In recent weeks, Attendo has overseen her care during the day and the municipal home care service at night. She feels that neither have listened to her and that her current situation is much worse than the accident itself when she fell. Her sense of security has been completely shattered and she says she is ready to give up as she can’t take any more.
A friend who is a nurse and occasionally helps out notes that much of what the situation requires—an active care plan, nutritious food and drink, medication management, and rehabilitation—is missing.
New decision
Peter Nylander, head of health and medical care at the municipality, says he does not want to comment on specific cases, but that they always make an individual assessment with the possibility of increasing home care visits or providing supervision.
After Nya Wermlands-Tidningen highlighted Elsa’s case, things have started to happen. She has now received a new care decision and a new home care team that looks after her day and night. The change is described as very successful by her friend, and Elsa sees it as a miracle that her sense of security has been restored.
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