Proximity to elderly housing - "A basic need for everyone"

Anne-Marie Boström is Associate Professor at Karolinska Institutet and researches the care of the elderly. She sees that the measures taken to protect our senior citizens who live in elderly homes are necessary, but can create problems. A problem that causes security barriers and visitor bans to create a deficit in proximity.

- We already see how important it is with skin-to-skin contact with the newborn baby. It is a basic need of all people and it does not disappear as we get older. It is important to be close, ”she says.

Anne-Marie Boström says that the need for closeness is also supported by the research, although of course there are people whose demands for integrity exceed the need for closeness. But the new situation requires even more research.

- It is very individual, she says and continues:

- But we don't know how long this will last. So we need to explore how we can create meetings that promote closeness in the strange times we live in.

Anne-Marie Boström also has suggestions on how to solve at least parts of the proximity need.

- You can think of how to compensate for this in the care work. It is possible to give, for example, hand massage, tactile stimulation, even with gloves. It is a way that can bring closeness.

Anne-Marie Boström has taken note of SVT's report on Gertrud Larsson who can only talk to her daughter through a plexiglass disc when they meet for the first time in three months.

- It is still a relief for them to meet. Obviously, this plexiglass creates some problems. As with the sound. It may be difficult to hear for both the elderly and the close relatives, she says and continues:

- But it is at least a step in the right direction. Perhaps the second best solution to this problem, says Anne-Marie Boström.