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My mother could afford to pay for care but we couldn’t get consistent reliable care due to the pandemic. We chose a residence but even they are limited to what they can provide and in Canada if a higher level of care is required then the person needs to go to LTC which wasn’t available at the time and she ended up staying in hospital until she passed. The government offers home supports with a cookie cutter approach; not tailored to what would make staying in her home possible. PSWs [personal support workers] to help shower and dress but no service to wash dishes. She could shower, [but] she needed help with dinner and dishes or laundry. The maximum hours [funded by the] Government is 4 hours/week not enough to sustainably stay home.

Every person in need of care must be cared for so that he or she has all the dignity required. Taking into account their limitations, they must be provided with the highest possible quality of life. This care must be provided by family members and professional staff so that their affective and assistance needs are covered.

[translated] The development of home care services in Romania would contribute to increasing the quality of life of Romanians and would be of great help to family doctors [general practitioners] who are overburdened with time-consuming bureaucratic tasks.

[translated] In general, the state should take care of the financing of care services and introduce a system for quick access to emergency medical care.

[Translated] I have placed my mother in a nursing home due to advanced dementia. What is missing there are people who occupy themselves with the old people. […] Due to Corona and very limited visitation opportunities, loneliness is increasing. Thus all voluntary visiting services fall flat. […] As much as one pushes the models to accommodate old and young in shared apartments together, I found that my mother with advancing age – who loves her great-grandchildren very much – is simply more stressed when she is visited, it is too loud, too wild, etc.. So she doesn’t want to attend family gatherings anymore either. For a while she was very enthusiastic about the day care center in [redacted] – there she was offered everything she needed. Someone talked to her, they played and made music together, they prepared the snack together, etc. This combination between home and day care center would be IDEAL in my opinion.

[Translated] I would urgently need support as far as my parents are concerned. They live alone, my father doesn’t speak at all anymore, can’t be reached by phone either, and my mother now and then. I think they both need urgent support, but I can’t talk to them anymore. My mother had a serious brain operation, I was never informed by any doctor, by any nurse, by any social worker…….what can be done, what is available, nothing at all….

As a person caring for my spouse I receive a payment from my social protection department to cover my role. This payment amounts to less than 1x€ per hour as I’m needed to be there 24 hrs per day to assist 365 days per year. I think I should receive a better benefit to do this task.

I have Parkinson’s Disease and I dread what the future holds for me physically and mentally.

[Translated] Do not forget to correlate loss of functional independence with disease. Do not forget that 30% of dementias can be prevented and that frailty is preventable and reversible: prevention must also be funded.

[translated -excerpt, emphasis in original text] Home-based assistance offered by the Romanian state to older people DOES NOT EXIST. This is unacceptable. […] for sick people and the elderly the situation is extremely BAD. There is no help. No state funded services to help them at home or in an institution, facilities for the elderly are so bad they are more like prisons or labour camps. I also strongly advise you to do a study and personal visits to psychiatric hospitals, and how mental health is treated in Romania.