“The Netherlands faces elder care challenges: Minister promotes self-reliance and innovation”

While the Netherlands is aging rapidly, we are increasingly relying on ourselves for care for the elderly. That is the message from Minister of Long-Term Care, Conny Helder News hour. “We don’t have the option to continue to provide care in the same way.”

About 80 percent of the Dutch have not arranged anything for care and adjustments that they may need later as elderly people, according to research by Actiz, the sector association of healthcare organizations. “Many people let it come down to it,” says Helder.

She finds that worrying. “It is very wise to think about it. You are still in control when you are younger. Where do you live? Do you have a steep staircase? Then you are vulnerable if something happens. Good to think about whatever you want, later.”

The minister does not want the number of nursing home places – a total of 130,000 – to grow any further. “The number of people working in care does not increase with the number of people who need care.” According to her, a solution lies in building 40,000 new nursing care homes, but she acknowledges that “they will not be ready until 2030”.

The road to self-reliance of the elderly is full of bumps. Elderly care is struggling with staff shortages, rising waiting lists, housing shortages and bureaucratic red tape. “We need to organize it smarter,” says Helder. “If we want to maintain those nursing home places, we have to organize the rest differently.”

Organizing this differently must partly come from innovations. The national government has bundled tips for the elderly on the website www.zorgvannu.nl. You click on a condition of your choice and are presented with a number of “innovative” tools.

But the website does not provide many useful tips for many disorders: for example, the demented elderly who would like practical solutions to stay at home longer receive only these options from the government website: install a speech assistant and buy a robot vacuum cleaner (“This is how you can use your energy in other stabbing things”).

In addition to the speech assistant, people who are blind or visually impaired are also advised to purchase an alarm button and a smart smoke detector. People who have difficulty walking and want to live safely at home are advised to buy non-slip socks. A link to Bol.com has already been added. Just like a review about the socks, playfully recorded in a swimming pool. According to Helder, there is still some work to be done for the website. “It’s not quite filled yet.”

Last week, the minister also traveled to Scandinavia for inspiration for elderly care. “In Helsinki I saw apartment complexes that were organized by the elderly themselves. Actively cooking together, cleaning together. We have to organize it that way in the Netherlands too. With people who also live there, who can help the elderly.”