Social Services Department

Class this morning was ok… if you could even call it a class. Mostly it was just people talking for a bit with very little discussion. This morning, Steven Zarit (the head professor from Penn State) gave us a brief overview of what our site visits would be like each afternoon. It was interesting because he brought up a few terms that I didn’t know, such as “excess disabilities.” Excess disabilities occur when we assign adults with more problems then they actually have. For instance, if an older adult has difficulty cooking, we often then assume he/she can’t do anything for him/herself and therefore we put him/her in assisted living. Basically, we end up treating the whole person rather than the specific issue, whereas here, they are very good about treating only the specific problems. When he finished speaking, Stig Berg gave us some basic information on Sweden (demographics). Again, he was very difficult to stay awake through so I’m beginning to think that his low, calm voice just makes people doze off (I wasn’t the only one). We had a break after he spoke and we into a lounge to have some coffee. Just a side note about coffee… Everyone drinks it here. In fact, we are supposed to accept it and drink a little at our site visits because it is impolite to say no. I’ve had my fair share of small cups of coffee so far. Today’s choice of many of the students was Choccaffe, which was kind of a mix between hot chocolate and coffee. I had 2 cups, determined to stay awake through the next speaker. Later in the day (which I’ll get to in a minute), people were pushing coffee carts all around the building we were on and of course, our site leader said, “Let’s finish by enjoying some coffee in the cafeteria Ares.” The student from Turkey also brought a box of Turkish Delights and since I have never had them, I ate quite a few of those during the break as well. When we were done, we went back into our room to listen to Gerdt Sundström, who I believe is a professor here at the university. He was actually very good and had these amazing blue eyes. Brandy and I assumed that in his youth, he was the typical sturdy, blonde hair blue eyes Swedish stereotype! He talked about how old age care has evolved since the early 1900s, starting with the poorhouses which seemed to evolve into more of the home based care you see here. He showed us many pictures from the 1940s of what the poorhouses and institutions looked like (he commented that showing all the pictures of the homes was like social pornography) and these places actually did not look that bad. Compared to images in my mind about nursing homes in the states, I would much rather be at a poorhouse where there was encouragement to participate in activities as opposed to nursing homes where you are often just another person in the whole rather than an individual. When Gerdt was done, we had an hour for lunch and Brandy and I walked back to the hotel since we weren’t hungry.

At 1:00, we met back up at the university to head to the Social Services Department. This site visit was excellent. One of the managers in the municipality, Stefan Osterström, gave us so much information.

Stefan and the room we were in

I was one of the primary people asking questions because I am just fascinated with the services they provide here. To sum it all up (and not bore you with the misc. details of how the department is divided), care is amazing here. Of course, residents pay a high municipality tax but whenever anything related to health (physical disability, health issues, drug addiction, psychiatric issues, elder care, etc.) occurs, residents either contact the department or the hospital contacts the department staff (some of which are located in the hospital) and a needs assessment is immediately conducted (within a day). A needs assessment is basically a battery of measures assessing the physical, social, mental, etc. needs that an individual might have. Within about 2 days, the municipality already has care lined up. For example, let’s say you fall and break your hip. While in the hospital, the hospital staff will contact the municipality and they come and complete your needs assessment. They determine that when you leave the hospital (which will prob. be very soon since they kick you out relatively quickly), you will need someone to help you cook and bath. What they do first is contact family and see if there is a family member available to help. Stefan said that often times, it is a daughter that has the greatest responsibility and usually is available to help. If there is no one available, the municipality sends out a staff member (usually someone who is qualified with a 2-3 year nursing assistant degree or a social services degree) to buy groceries for you (to be ready when you come home) and to come to you and assist you with the things that you cannot do. I asked about paperwork and all the red tape you normally get in hospitals when trying to receive support and mentioned how in the states, sometimes it takes weeks before assistance comes through because of all the paperwork. Stefan said that the municipality takes care of all the scheduling, investigation (into what support is needed) and the paperwork. I am totally amazed by this system. Imagine getting the support and care you need almost immediately and not having to deal with all the confusion and barriers. Even though I don’t think I’m a fan of like half your income going to taxes to support programs like this, I’m so impressed by how the system actually works here. He also mentioned that there is very low turnover rate with the staff because they are very loyal to what they do. It was interesting because Stefan kept saying, “It is our obligation and our duty to help out.” Not only is that so positive for the residents here to know that they have this amazing support, but I would think it would be uplifting as an employee to know that everyone is truly interested in helping one another. I had so many questions for Stefan, especially ones that didn’t necessarily relate to elder care but related more to children and teenagers. After he was done and we were getting coffee, I approached him to ask about child abuse and teenage pregnancy. I was curious if child abuse was as prevalent here and if they had a foster care type system. He said that they are moving towards getting more foster homes here but that those homes are relatively new concepts, replacing the idea of institution care. For teen pregnancy, I was curious if it was a problem here and if there is support for teen mothers. He surprised me with his answer (because I hadn’t thought about it that way) by saying the rate of abortion has continued to increase as well as teens having unsafe sex. Because abortion is not as taboo here as it is in the states, they are more likely to go that route than actually have the baby. The problem that was bigger than teen pregnancy though, is how often teens are getting STDs and HIV now because they are just not that interested in safe sex anymore (I would assume because they know they can easily take care of the pregnancy problem if it happens and they also have free health care for when they get a disease). I had not looked at it from that perspective so I’m glad I asked about it. Brandy (who teaches one of the human sexuality classes at Tech) and I talked about it afterwards and we also wondered about the idea of sex education and what they teach here (abstinence vs. safe sex).

Once we finally left Social Services, I walked with Shannon and Brandy to the liquor store (they wanted to get wine… if you ever go out to a bar here at night, everyone recommends drinking before you leave since alcohol is so expensive in the bars) and then we walked back to the hotel. I think around 6:00 tonight we are all walking to the city park here and then going to dinner on the pier afterwards. We’re trying to take advantage of what is supposed to be the last sunny day here for awhile (rain is in the forecast starting tomorrow). Before that, we might go walk around and grab a snack or just sit on the 2^nd floor roof patio and talk.