Summer home care demand rises in Denmark’s largest summer house municipality

Denmark’s largest summer house municipality, Odsherred Kommune, has begun recruiting summer holiday replacements for home care services as early as February, introducing a new SMS application option.

The demand for home care follows residents on holiday, requiring summer house municipalities like Odsherred to think creatively to find caregivers for those in need during the summer season.

“Like all other municipalities, we are trying to do things differently,” said Rasmus Hansen, head of care and health in Odsherred Kommune. “We believe that many of the summer holiday replacements could be younger people who might not look in the traditional places.”

Relatives feel the pressure

Lotte Bentzen, whose father relies on home care in Odsherred Kommune, says summer holidays are rarely relaxing.

“I never relax,” Bentzen said. “Every day I wonder if I should put my own daily life on hold to help him, or if something might happen that home care might not notice because they don’t have the time.”

Despite early recruitment efforts, Bentzen is skeptical about the impact. “They’ve done this every year I’ve been in contact with home care,” she said.

Municipality anticipates summer strain

Hansen expects pressure on home care services as summer approaches, with around 24,000 summer houses in the municipality.

“It’s challenging when you have a municipality with nearly 33,000 residents and 24,000 summer houses,” Hansen said. “It’s a massive influx.”

While acknowledging the difficult situation, Hansen emphasized that Odsherred Kommune remains committed to providing services, having already hired eight holiday replacements for home care.

Source: DR