Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-wg55d Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-02T03:55:50.017Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Elderly People in Sweden: Current Realities and Future Plans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2008

Mats Thorslund  and
Lennarth Johansson
Mats Thorslund
Affiliation:
Department of Social Medicine, University Hospital, UppsalS75185, Sweden.
Lennarth Johansson
Affiliation:
Department of Social Medicine, University Hospital, UppsalS75185, Sweden.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Swedish population is one of the oldest in the world with the consequence that the country has a very high proportion of long-term institutional beds to meet the care needs of elderly people. Studies of the pathways to institutional care showed that alternative home care options had been given too little consideration and that a quarter of residents could have been satisfactorily supported in the community. The Sundsvall Intervention Programme was based upon a distribution of these research findings to institutions and practitioners, followed by a joint training programme on assessment and resource allocation. The first phase of the intervention yielded an unrealised potential for elderly people to remain at home; but it met continuing resistance from professionals and kin. The exercise indicates the need to combine service innovation with locally relevant systems which engage all of the interested parties – elderly people, their relatives, care providers, service managers and politicians.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 7 , Issue 3 , September 1987 , pp. 345 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Selby, P. and Schechter, M.Aging 2000 – A Challenge for Society. MTP Press, London, 1982.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Hakansson, S.Economic aspects of care of the elderly. Effective Health Care, 2 (1985).Google ScholarPubMed

3 Johansson, L. Omsorg i det tysta. Anhorigas roll i aldrevarden (Forgotten Care – The role of the family in the care for the elderly). Spri-report 200, Stockholm, 1986 (in Swedish with an English summary).Google Scholar

4 Sundstrom, G.Caring for the Aged in Welfare Society. Stockholm Studies in Social Work, 1. Liber Forlag, Stockholm, 1983.Google Scholar

5 Dagens aldre. Fakta kring levadsforhallanden. Sou 1985: 31.

6 William-Olsson, M. and Svanborg, A.Gammal eller ung pa aldre dar. Socialsty-relsen, Stockholm, 1984.Google Scholar

7 Thorslund, M. ‘Reasons why the elderly move to institutions for services and care’, in Lidmar-Reinius, K. (ed.), The Elderly and Their Environment. Research in Sweden. Swedish Council for Building Research, Stockholm, 1984, pp. 90–96.Google Scholar

8 Thorslund, M and Johansson, L. ‘The Sundsvall Project – a Swedish action research program for improved utilization of resources in elderly care’, in van Eimern, W., Englebrecht, R. and Flagle, C. D. (eds), System Science in Health Care. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg-New York, 1984, pp. 212–214.Google Scholar

9 Thorslund, M.Evaluation research in care of the elderly. Some Swedish experiences. Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care 1 (1986), 33–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar