4. HOME CARE
In the Netherlands it is common practice to use the word 'client' when talking about home care. Not every client that receives home care is ill, and even when ill, this illness is embedded in a total home situation. Although home care is available to everyone, most of the people that receive home care are elderly people. Many of them are female and live alone.
During the last ten years, the number of clients above age 80 has been increasing.
Home care is defined as 'nursing care, family care, treatment and support provided in the homes of clients by professionals, and aided by self-care, informal care, and volunteers, and specially geared to enabling clients to remain at home as long as possible'.
By 'informal care' is meant the help by family and friends. Volunteers are part of the many volunteer organizations that exist in the Netherlands.
A video will be shown about a home care organization in the eastern part of the Netherlands, giving a good impression of some home care processes.
The Netherlands have a long tradition of home care. The first organizations were founded nearly 125 years ago. By the beginning of this century, these organizations were established all over the country. There were two kinds of home care organizations: the home nursing organizations, which provided nursing care, and the home help organizations, which deliver household help. In the course of the century both types of organizations got national councils and also government subsidies. From 1970 on major organizational reforms took place and
