If you cannot manage everyday tasks at home due to illness, disability or age, there are various different services to help you. If services provided at home are no longer sufficient to support you in coping with everyday tasks, you can be moved to serviced accommodation or institutional care.

What kind of services and support measures are available to the elderly and people with disabilities?

Generally, people with disabilities or elderly people want to live in their own home for as long as possible. Therefore living at home is supported through, for example, home help and home care services:

• Support services are organised for persons who need them on the grounds that their functional capacity has declined due to old age, illness, disability or other similar cause. Support services include meals being brought to your home, clothes maintenance and cleaning services as well as services promoting or supporting inclusion and social interaction.
• Home care provides support and help with everyday tasks and taking care of personal functions, such as hygiene. Home care will include care and attention based on the client’s individual needs as well as activity promoting functional capacity and interaction and other activity supporting their coping. Home care will also include home nursing based on the client’s individual needs.
• Living at home can also be made easier by carrying out modifications to your home, to ensure that your home serves you better in managing everyday tasks.
• Home nursing is carried out in the client's home and consists of health care tasks prescribed by a nurse or doctor, for example taking samples, monitoring medication and checking well-being.

People with disabilities can also be provided with, for example, assistive devices, and transportation and interpreting services. People with disabilities can also receive personal assistance, rehabilitation and adaptation training. The aim is to support the working and functioning capacity of people with disabilities, as well as supporting independence. Support for people with disabilities in finding work, work training, and daily and work-based activities is organised to promote their independent living and social interaction.

The preventative services and rehabilitation offered to the elderly help them to maintain their ability to function day to day. The services include advisory services (such as the Senior Info services), home visits to promote well-being, day centres, vaccinations etc.

If living at home is no longer possible, there are a variety of housing services on offer. Housing services can be provided in units where there are staff on-site 24 hours a day or just during the day time. Housing services can be organised in sheltered accommodation, group housing, or scattered housing. Serviced accommodation for people with severe disabilities can also be organised at home.

If you are unable to live comfortably at home regardless of the support provided, and if serviced accommodation is not an option, the next option is institutional care. The wellbeing services county can respond to an older person's need for service by long-term institutional care only if it has medical grounds or grounds for customer safety or patient safety. Long-term institutional care includes not just round-the-clock care but also food, medication, cleaning, clothing, rehabilitation and services to promote social well-being.

Both serviced accommodation and institutional care can also be provided on a short-term basis. Short term care either supports the elderly and people with disabilities in coping with everyday tasks at home, or caregivers by providing the person requiring care with serviced accommodation or institutional care for a short-term period. At the same time, it prevents the need for permanent serviced accommodation or institutional care.

When can I claim help at home or move to serviced accommodation or institutional care?

Wellbeing services counties grant services based on an individual evaluation of service needs. The evaluation is based on the client's own perspective and an assessment by one or more experts. In urgent situations the service need will always be evaluated immediately.

A service and care plan will be drawn up based on this evaluation. The plan will be drawn up by officials from the wellbeing services county in consultation with the client and, if necessary, a relative or legal representative. The wellbeing services county will make a decision about the services provided based on the plan.

How do I apply for services?

Contact your own wellbeing services county's social and healthcare services.

Forms that you may need

General information about services and support measures can be found on the websites of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (http://www.stm.fi/en/social-and-health-services) and The Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities (http://www.localfinland.fi/). You will find more detailed information about the services each wellbeing services county offers on the relevant website.

Know your rights

The Commission's publication and website:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=849&langId=fi

Who should I contact?

Contact your wellbeing services county's social and healthcare services.