CHALLENGE
Explosive growth of the senior citizens sector means that it is necessary to make domestic care more efficient.

Local authorities must reduce the number of domestic care staff. Can elderly and handicapped people living in their own homes become better at helping themselves through new, improved facilities?

FINDINGS
In Aarhus Municipality, domestic care staff spend 152 hours a day helping people put on and take off compression stockings.

19,000 people living in homes for the elderly get help from social and healthcare assistants during visits to the toilet. This service is typically given 4-5 times a day in combination with the provision of other services (e.g. dressing and similar activities).

In the four local authorities in the project, a total of 5,000 people receive help bathing. On average, these people have two baths a week.

SOLUTION
Twelve ideas were proposed. Several of the ideas are being developed further. A solution to the compression stocking problem identified in the project will result in a reduction of up to DKK 106 million in labour costs. This idea is being developed further.
The recommended uridom (incontinence) solutions, to make domestic care recipients more self-sufficient when going to the toilet, have a labour-saving potential of DKK 1.6 million in the four local authorities and DKK 15.5 million on a national scale.
Of the 5,000 people who receive bathing help, 500 could become self-sufficient through the recommended solutions. This equates to a cut in labour of 500 hours a week, equal to 13.5 full-time jobs in the four local authorities alone.

Design CPH Design
Project partners Municipalities of Århus, Næstved, Esbjerg and Roskilde. Copenhagen Business School. Anthropological Analysis.