Public Care among Older Non-Nordic Immigrants in Sweden in Comparison with Nordic Born Controls

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe the formal care provided by the municipality and the staff's description of care-related needs among nonNordic older immigrants compared to older Nordic-born persons in Sweden. A further aim was to describe the occurrence of informal care provided. Cross-sectional data were collected concerning 111 non-Nordic immigrants from the longitudinal study «Good Ageing in Skåne» (GAS). Comparisons were made between them and a group consisting of Nordic born older people (n=111) with the same age and gender distribution. The findings showed that the non-Nordic immigrants to a higher extent cohabited with children or partners, had family members employed as caregivers, received help with Instrumental Activities in Daily Living (IADL) and Personal Activities in Daily Living (PADL) from their family, received more rehabilitation at home and more daytime home health care and were reported to have special care needs than the comparison group. Furthermore, the health care personnel had less knowledge about the non-Nordic immigrants, which in turn could mean that they do not receive the care they need.

Establishing a culturally specific nursing home for Finnish‐speaking older persons in Sweden: A case study

“…Despite these recommendations, older born abroad often live in ordinary nursing homes that is not adapted to the possibilities to be equally involved in the health care because of possibilities to communicate in the term of language (Chan & Kayser‐Jones, ; Hadziabdic, Lundin, & Hjelm, ; National Board of Health and Welfare, ; Plejert, Jansson, & Yazdanpanah, ) lack of adjustment of cultural beliefs and customs (Chan & Kayser‐Jones, ; National Board of Health and Welfare, ), lack of requests for older health care in the minority language, municipalities' lack of knowledge about the law on national minorities and lack of information translated into minority languages targeted to the older and their families (National Board of Health and Welfare, ). Healthcare services for older persons needs to be adapted to the growing diversity of older people, otherwise it will run the risk that foreign‐born older avoid formal care and instead rely on informal healthcare from the family, resulting in a heavier health care burden for the families (Hovde et al., , ; The Department of Care and Care Analysis, ). Previous studies (Andrews, ; Heikkila & Ekman, ; National Board of Health and Welfare, ) have found that older members of minority communities who live in institutional older health care, where they can receive culturally appropriate care in familiar socio‐cultural circumstances increases the well‐being of older people.…”

“…Healthcare services for older persons needs to be adapted to the growing diversity of older people, otherwise it will run the risk that foreign-born older avoid formal care and instead rely on informal healthcare from the family, resulting in a heavier health care burden for the families (Hovde et al, 2008a(Hovde et al, , 2008bThe Department of Care and Care Analysis, 2015). Previous studies (Andrews, 2012;Heikkila & Ekman, 2003;National Board of Health and Welfare, 2015) have found that older members of minority communities who live in institutional older health care, where they can receive culturally appropriate care in familiar socio-cultural circumstances increases the well-being of older people.…”

“…A previous study (Hovde, Hallberg, & Edberg, 2008a) found that older immigrants have poorer health and that this is mainly related to socio-economic factors. Yet, they often receive less health care than native Swedes (Hovde et al, 2008a) because they receive more informal help from their families, they have more behaviour perceived to be difficult to handle (Hovde, Hallberg, & Edberg, 2008b) and they need a more culturally adopted appropriate healthcare setting (Chan & Kayser-Jones, 2005;Heikkila & Ekman, 2003).…”

Growing Old in a Foreign Context — Older Immigrants' Experience of Everyday Life in Residential Care Facilities

“…Thus, all indicators of a healthy transition process are affected by language (15). Communication difficulties are major obstacle when assessing older immigrant's needs and home help providers often answered "don't know" when they were asked about older immigrants' need for help (5). This indicates that immigrants have difficulties making their needs understood when being assessed.…”

“…Older persons with foreign background often receive less care than native Swedes (4) despite having more severe problems (5) and poorer health than their Swedish peers (6). Health care personnel also seems to be poorly prepared to meet immigrants, for example one study showed that more than 80 percent of child health nurses (n=270) were poorly prepared to meet families from foreign cultures.…”