One in four home-care respondents reports missing approved help

More than one in four respondents to a Swedish home-care survey said staff provided only part or none of the help they had been approved to receive.

In Socialstyrelsen’s new report, 73% answered yes when asked whether home-care staff helped with everything their caseworker had approved. Another 22% answered partly and 5% said no.

The finding rests on 72,400 substantive answers. People who skipped the question or answered “don’t know/not applicable” were excluded. The question was added this year, so it cannot show whether delivery has improved or deteriorated.

The distinction matters: a care decision can approve help that a person then says is not fully delivered. The survey records recipients’ experiences; it does not establish the cause of each shortfall.

Published on 16 October, the national survey invited 148,000 home-care users aged 65 or older to participate. About 80,000 responded, a response rate of 55%. Socialstyrelsen says some uncertainty from nonresponse remains.

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