The Swedish municipal food distribution service to the elderly living at home as experienced by the recipient's relatives.

Zada Pajalic

doi:10.5539/gjhs.v5n6p12

Abstract

The municipal Food distribution service (FD) to the elderly living at home is a part of the public social and care service in Sweden, The objective of this service is to ensure proper food intake for persons who are unable to do their own shopping, and prepare their own meals. The foremost reasons for the need of the FD service are in situations where there are illness related physical or psychological limitations. This means that the Swedish welfare system takes on the responsibility for its citizens when they have a legal social related need of care. Further, according to the Swedish social legislation, children or other relatives have no legal obligations to take care of their parents or elderly disabled relatives. This also means that the children or relatives of elderly people requiring social support have no legal right to be involved in the evaluation procedure of need assessment or the outcome of any social and care services granted by the Swedish social welfare system.The aim of the present study was to gain insight into how the relatives of elderly people living at home in Sweden experience the municipal service of ready-made meals distributed daily.The data was collected using in-depth interviews with relatives of elderly persons who use the municipal food distribution (FD) service (n=8). The transcribed interview material was analysed using the grounded theory method.The findings of this study revealed that the relatives of the municipal FD service recipients advocate for a food preparation service in the home of the recipient rather than the distribution of ready-made meals from a central kitchen. The results also revealed that the participating relatives felt frustrated by the legal limitations that make it impossible for them to influence the municipal FD service. The findings in this study also indicate that relatives should be considered as a resource in this matter and could actively participate, and have a positive influence on the quality of the municipal FD service for the elderly. The results of the study could have implications for nursing, public administration and gerontology.

Highlights

The municipal food distribution (FD) service is a part of the public social and care service in Sweden (Pajalic, Westergren, Skovdahl, & Persson, 2013)
As the participants themselves applied to participate in the study, the author was aware of the possibility that this might have had an influence on the theory generated, so there was reason to question if those participants who chose to participate in this study might think differently in these matters than those relatives who did not participate
The present study shows that the participants had difficulties in expressing their observations and viewpoints, related to the municipal FD service, to the involved officials

Summary

Introduction

The municipal food distribution (FD) service is a part of the public social and care service in Sweden (Pajalic, Westergren, Skovdahl, & Persson, 2013). In Sweden, the relatives, including their children, of a person requiring any type of social assistance have no specific legal obligations or care responsibilities towards their of kin These matters are the responsibility of the State through the municipalities (Szebehely, 2003). The concept of a reasonable standard of living is determined by making a comparison with what a normal citizen can generally afford (Hetherington, Anderson, Norton, & Newson, 2006) This concept is not conceptualised in the text of the law but there is a paragraph in a government bill stating that the definition of a “reasonable standard of living” means that citizens may expect to have their needs of assistance met by a State social agency (Lagergren, 2002). In accordance with the Swedish Social Service Act (Elmér, 2000), society has a legal responsibility for the social care of its citizens who are in need of help, which means, that the relatives and children of the person in need of help relinquish, in law, any legal responsibility for the welfare of the person who is receiving assistance under the Swedish Social Service Act (Gustafsson & Andersson, 2004)

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