A paperwork, long waiting times and counters that don’t know what each other is doing. More than half assess the process they have to go through to apply for care for an elderly person as poor (57 percent). And the elderly are the victims.
This is the conclusion of research by EenVandaag among 1,900 people who applied for care for an elderly person living at home in their environment, such as a parent, partner or neighbour.
Most experience problems
This concerns, for example, domestic help, district nursing, aids such as a wheelchair, or applying for a place in a nursing home.
Things are going well for 38 percent, but most are experiencing problems. As a result, applicants become frustrated. And that the elderly do not receive the care they need.
Jungle of rules and authorities
Informal carers usually start their application for an elderly person with their general practitioner or their municipality. Then other agencies come into the picture, such as home care or the health insurer. A quarter (27 percent) knocks at a maximum of three counters. But a larger group (45 percent) has to deal with five or more different authorities.
Half (53 percent) find the process of applying for care difficult. Participants speak of ‘gigantic bureaucracy’, ‘dozens of forms’ and ‘a proliferation of rules’.
‘to become despondent’
Someone says: “For every facility I have to fill in a lot of papers and call several times, there are long waiting times for everything. My father has to be examined again and again. Many are rejected at first. It makes me despondent.”
Another writes: “We are reasonably educated and yet the jungle of the various regulations, financing and forms via the Wmo (Social Support Act, ed.), the Wlz (Long-term Care Act, ed.) and the Health Insurance Act, a complicated job.”
You are waiting every day because another agency can call. Which then doesn’t happen
Participant in the study, who requested care for an elderly person
Not taken seriously
Many applicants do not feel taken seriously. Someone writes about this: “You are sent from pillar to post with completely wrong information. The big problem is that employees think in terms of regulations that they themselves are insufficiently familiar with. They do not ask: ‘What do you need?’ or ‘What are you running into?’, but they ask all kinds of nonsensical questions from their checklist.”
Respondents have the impression that their request for help is deliberately underestimated and that they have to solve the problem themselves.
‘Thinking is not there’
“I understand that there are staff shortages. But there is no thinking along. We were told that as children we should help my mother with dementia. Or else we had to turn to volunteers or the church.”
Another example: “My father has a pacemaker, has difficulty walking, is almost 90 years old and has already been lying on the floor for hours before he was picked up. not be life threatening.”
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Bad communication
Two thirds (64 percent) are dissatisfied with the way in which the various authorities communicate with each other. Many participants complain that they have to tell their story over and over again and that authorities contradict each other.
They have the impression that no one takes ownership of the problem. “While I was forwarded by the municipality and they knew the entire file of my father, they knew nothing about home care.”
More knowledge than counters
Here, too, people feel that the ball is always being passed back to them. “The Social Insurance Bank and the health insurer only communicate digitally via a portal. If just one tick is not checked correctly, everything gets stuck. Then I have to try to change that myself. That sometimes takes weeks.”
Some comment that they themselves now know the rules better than the employees of the various counters they knock on.
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Overload applicants
The viscous system has major consequences for both the applicants and the elderly themselves.
Two thirds (68 percent) of the respondents who applied for care for someone else experienced a lot of stress.
This stress stems from the long wait for professional care. Informal carers and family do not want to leave the elderly to fend for themselves in the meantime, so they step into the gap themselves as much as possible.
Got frustrated
That means a considerable burden on top of their own lives: “What made it stressful was the distance (105 kilometers) and that I also continued to work.” Some solve it by (temporarily) buying help with their own money.
Many (52 percent) have become frustrated, but they saw no choice but to continue with the application. One in ten (10 percent) terminates the program prematurely. Others seriously doubt whether they want to make such an application again.
Elderly victims
According to four in ten participants, the person for whom they applied did not receive the care they needed (41 percent). An equally large group thinks that the elderly person has been neglected due to the negative experience with the request for care (39 percent).
They say that the household becomes polluted because dishes are no longer washed or cleaned, that problems arise due to incontinence, or that the elderly end up in hospital unnecessarily. “The waiting time for the nursing home was 18 months. Impossible, for someone who is completely dependent on care and has almost no family members for informal care,” says a family member.
Great concern about elderly people with dementia
The consequences are greatest for elderly people with dementia, who live independently. A daughter describes: “Mother lets the pans burn, life-threatening. At night she goes out into the street, the police have to look for her again and again. It is scandalous how the elderly (with dementia) are treated in the Netherlands. Care is hardly available or not sufficient.
Only when the situation really goes off the rails, for example in the case of advanced dementia or a serious fall, do all the authorities seem to move at the same time and the requested care or a place in a nursing home is quickly arranged.
info
About the investigation
The survey was held from 21 to 27 June 2023. 26,614 members of the EenVandaag Opinion Panel participated in the survey about various facets of elderly care. Including 1,937 people who applied for care for an elderly person living at home.
This concerns domestic help, help with general daily living activities, such as eating and drinking, non-medical aids (e.g. wheelchair, mobility scooter), daytime activities, district nurse care, adjustments in the home, shopping service, support from an informal carer, medical help or applying for a place in a nursing home.
In the study, ‘elderly’ refers to people older than 65 years. After weighting, the research is representative of 6 variables, namely: age, gender, education, marital status, distribution across the country and political preference measured according to the 2021 parliamentary elections. The Opinion Panel consists of 80,000 members.
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2023-07-15 05:00:01
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