Toomas Tammik, mayor of Järva municipality
ERR’s program “Impulss” discussed what has become of the promise to guarantee a place in a nursing home for a pension. Although it was a commendable thought, the Minister of Social Protection Signe Riisalo also admitted in the program that this is a populist approach.
Riisalo showed a typical attitude of the Reform Party, where constructive criticism is answered with arrogance and arrogant communication, blaming local governments for everything. The government comes up with an idea and municipalities have to implement it with insufficient funding – nothing new. According to Riisalo, in the year before the reform, the total turnover of the general care service was 112 million euros. 80 percent of it was paid by customers and their family members, and 20 percent by municipalities.
According to the minister, we have reached a situation where, on the one hand, we are not satisfied with the quality, on the other hand, we see that people have too often gone to general care as a first aid option, and 93 percent of people currently on the service have not received home care services, even though this should be the first option. So something is out of balance in his mind.
Minister Riisalo, as a specialist in this field, should know that many clients end up in a nursing home, for example, as a result of a stroke or some other accident, regardless of age – before they were able-bodied people, but at some point not anymore. The statistics also do not take into account the fact that many care for their loved ones at home. Thirdly, the minister’s accusations that the municipalities do not sufficiently deal with home care services are unjust and insult our good social workers, because the municipalities have performed the activities specified in the law nicely.
The minister failed to mention that when the Social Welfare Act was adopted in 1995, the minister’s regulation, which specifies the nature of home care, was made only on June 29 of that year and will apply from January 1, 2025. Therefore, it is faceless to point the finger at local governments. The minister explained how the state’s support for general care will increase in the following years, but he forgot to mention that the number of elderly people in Estonia will also increase.
So many municipalities have followed the Chancellor of Justice’s recommendation to sue the state, if the municipality finds that the state has not allocated enough money to fulfill the tasks assigned to them by law. The municipality of Järva monitors these processes carefully and it is not excluded that it will have to take this path to protect its rights. Although I hope that this concern will be resolved in teamwork.
Despite everything, the municipality of Järva still tries to fulfill the promises made by the coalition in order to maintain credibility with the residents. The limit set by Järva municipality up to 710 euros is the third highest in Estonia after Tallinn and Tartu. Together with Paide, the municipality of Järva took over the SA Dog Care Center, which has more than 200 residents, from the state in order to contribute even more to the field. In addition, we are a cooperation partner of the state, because the Dementia Competence Center operates at the Koeru Care Center, the aim of which is to improve the coping skills of people with dementia and their loved ones. We take the country as a cooperation partner and contribute to common goals.
The state cannot operate with local governments on a superior-subordinate basis. The country must also adopt modern management principles, where the government and local government form a team. The state must finally understand that the financing model of local governments must change. Only air and love do not create change.
