Three Nordic countries responding to COVID-19 - Eldercare perspectives.

Academic Journal

Rapeli M; Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, P.O.Box 33, 00023, Helsinki, Finland.
Carlstedt J; National Board of Health and Welfare, SE-106 30, Stockholm, Sweden.
Hergeirsdóttir R; University of Iceland, Faculty of Social Work, Sæmundargötu 10, IS-101, Reykjavík, Iceland.
Guðmundsson HS; University of Iceland, Faculty of Social Work, Sæmundargötu 10, IS-101, Reykjavík, Iceland.
Björngren Cuadra C; Malmö University, Department of Social Work, Citadellsvägen 7, 205 06, Malmö, Sweden.
Hatakka I; University of Tampere, Kalevantie 4, 33014, Tampereen Yliopisto, Finland.

International journal of disaster risk reduction : IJDRR [Int J Disaster Risk Reduct] 2023 Jan; Vol. 84, pp. 103442. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Nov 15.

English

Comparative international studies show that about half of the deceased in the COVID-19 pandemic were persons living in institutional and residential eldercare. As seniors are the most affected age group, we aim to study if and to what extent the eldercare services were included in the National Pandemic Plans, and how they were included in the response during the first phase of the pandemic in Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. We use the CRISMART approach to crisis documentation and analysis in comparing national response to the pandemic for the eldercare sector. The method enables comparison of extraordinary crisis situations from the decision-making and policy-making perspective. We found that there were both similarities and differences in the preparedness of the three Nordic countries, as well as in how they responded to the pandemic. In all three countries the focus of the national responses framed the problem as a health and healthcare services' problem. We also found value conflicts in the response between the value of protection versus social contact and self-determination and hence relating to the quality of eldercare. Keeping in mind the proportional increase of elderly people, care challenges, and future crises, we must strengthen the position of local social services within the emergency management systems to enhance disaster resilience and sustainability of our societies.
Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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