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Reino Hukka takes care of his spouse Helena Hukka,
who suffers from dementia, two weeks at a time. The
other two weeks in the month she is in respite care in
a nursing home.

Photo: Heidi Piiroinen / HS

UUSIMAA, Suomi (Helsingin Sanomat), September 17, 2008:

Arduous and all-consuming work is exhausting family care-providers to such an extent that there is a multiple risk of their passing away prematurely.

”Sometimes the carer is in poorer health than the patient”, notes executive manager Marja-Liisa Kunnas from the Association for Old Age and Neighbour Service.

Many individuals take care of their elderly relatives at the cost of their own health.

”When you have said 'I do', it means until the end of your life. Particularly the elderly care-providers work with their heart”, Kunnas concludes.

”There are many elderly people in carer roles who die before their patients”, confirms executive manager Pertti Riihelä from the Alzheimer Association of Helsinki.

According to a survey conducted by an association for family care-providers, elderly caregivers felt that they were less able to manage compared with their contemporaries. In fact their vigour appeared to be just 40 per cent compared with that of other people in the same age-bracket who are not caregivers.

Helsinki resident Reino Hukka, who had been taking care of his wife with Alzheimer’s disease at home for seven years, says that a year ago ”he was on the verge of passing away first”.

Hukka’s wife has long been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and he had to be constantly on alert. A couple of times a night he had to wake up in order to check where the patient had vanished to.

In the daytime, she could disappear while her husband was making a short visit to the library in order to return a book. She could be found in another district many hours later.

”Compared with child care, taking care of an Alzheimer’s patient is much more arduous”, says Hukka.

Hukka’s anxiety about his spouse had started years earlier when his wife had failed to turn up to take care of her grandchild while her son had had to travel on business. She had got lost in a familiar district, arriving late.

The most difficult were the past four years. The wife no longer understood when she should have gone to the toilet and had to wear a diaper. Moreover, two years ago, the formerly nice person became aggressive, which is one characteristic of Alzheimer’s.

The aggressiveness eventually led to a solution. Hukka’s wife was taken to a hospital emergency room, where a doctor could see how exhausted the husband was. The doctor ordered him to have complete rest for at least two weeks, while his wife was admitted to the hospital.

At present, the situation is good. Hukka’s wife spends two weeks in a nursing home in respite care and two weeks at home. Moreover, once her medication was amended she was no longer aggressive.

”My own situation is in order, but the holiday entitlement for family care-providers should be calculated on a weekly basis”, Hukka points out.

He sent a letter to that effect to parliamentary groups in early summer.

The holidays for care-providers are based on full months, not on for example three weeks, even though they do hard three-shift work and the solution is much cheaper for the municipality than is the alternative institutional care.

Apart from holiday rights, such carers are also entitled to a pension.

The estimated number of Finnish family care-providers is approximately 28,000. These individuals have made a contract with a municipality on caring for an immediate family member or other close relative.

However, the actual number is estimated to be tenfold, as many such caregivers do not know that they would meet the criteria of a family care-provider.

The majority of such carers are of pensionable age and look after their elderly spouse. They are concerned about their own physical strength and good health.

Family care-providers are also entitled to apply for a fee which amounts to a minimum sum of EUR 300 a month. The exact size of the remuneration is determined by each municipality.

Such caregivers are a cheap solution for municipalities, as one month’s fee would cover only a few days in institutional care.

Source: Helsingin Sanomat