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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.

[Translated] I would not want my future to be in the hands of politicians but in the hands of qualified experts.

[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.

Thanks for keeping this in the public eye. No easy answers, I’m not sure I agree with all of mine today, but we must keep trying!!

[Translated] I care for my husband after a stroke and brain hemorrhage, which means he needs me around the clock. I would like to have a paid time off of one week once a year and my husband is well taken care of and does not feel “deported”. After all, by taking care of him, I save the state a lot of money!

[Translated] In Belgium, we are immensely lucky that our health care system is based on solidarity. It is important that this continues and is even strengthened to avoid inequalities.

[Translated] Support and training for family caregivers is needed in many ways.

[Translated] Children and partners should never be forced to take care of their relatives. Everyone wants to be able to live their life the way they want. It’s great that a survey like this is being done. Thank you!

“Given the current state of care facilities, I would prefer to take care of my parents/loved ones at home and if I should require services I would prefer to be taken care of at home. The way I view care facilities in their present state is that these facilities provide everything needed to keep a person alive but greatly reduce their quality of life (e.g., loss of dignity, reduced access to meaningful activities and social interaction, loss of agency etc.). I believe it is practical, feasible and in governing bodies best interest in the long term to improve quality of care in these facilities. We now have good evidence for activities/programs that can improve wellbeing and physical health in older adults. We should be utilizing this evidence to improve the lives of older adults. If the quality of care provided in these facilities drastically improves, I would view this as the preferred option. But we are not there yet.”

[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.