Family Members Are Important for Home-Dwelling Persons With Memory Disorders – a Quantitative Analysis of Applications for Care Allowance for Pensioners

Abstract

As the population ages, memory disorders have become increasingly common in Finland. With the help of informal care and services provided at home, more and more older adults with memory disorders continue to live at home for as long as possible. Safe home-dwelling often requires outside assistance. In this paper, we look at low-income older adults (aged 75+) with memory disorders living at home with the help of home care or family members. The focus is on care needs and feeling safe when being home alone. Our data has been drawn from the applications for the care allowance for pensioners and combined with other register data from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. The results show that the need for care among home-dwelling older adults with memory disorders is extensive in all areas. Irrespective of whether the person relied on informal care assistance or home care, the need for care was approximately the same. Those with informal care reported lower rates of feeling safe when being alone. Despite the low income, using home care services was associated with greater use of support services, while those who relied on informal care used considerably fewer services provided at home. The lower use of services combined with continuous care needs confirms the notion that family members enable living at home.

Full text (in Finnish) (journal.fi)

Authors

Pauliina Puurtinen, Aliisa Palanne, Antti Teittinen

Additional Information

• Peer-Reviewed: yes.
• Open Access: yes.
• Cite as: Puurtinen, P., Palanne, A., & Teittinen, A. (2025). Omainen on tärkeä kotona asuvalle muistisairaalle – määrällinen analyysi Kelan hoitotukihakemuksista. Gerontologia, 39(1), 4–19. https://doi.org/10.23989/gerontologia.148793