(cont. from § 6) Strengthened measures for the elderly and for those who care for or support relatives (cont. SoU25)

Nils Seye Larsen (MP)

Mr. Speaker! Miljöpartiet welcomes the bill Strengthened measures for the elderly and for those who care for or support close relatives. These are important proposals that the Riksdag now has to take a stand on.

The proposal for a fixed care contact in special housing is important. Those who live in special housing often have extensive needs for care, nursing, security, and continuity. Many live with dementia or other diseases that make it difficult to personally keep track of information, contacts, and interventions.

Safety is about recognizing the person who helps you up in the morning. It is about meeting staff who know your needs, see changes over time, and can contribute to coordination regarding the individual's situation. Therefore, continuity plays a major role.

It is also positive that the support for relatives is clarified. Many people in Sweden regularly care for, help, or support a close relative. It can be a partner, a parent, an adult child, a sibling, or some other close person. The efforts of relatives are often crucial, but they must never be taken for granted. They should be based on voluntariness, and society's responsibility must not be shifted onto relatives because the care or support is insufficient.

Therefore, it is good that the social welfare committee's responsibility for information, guidance, and other support is clarified. It is also good that children as relatives are more clearly highlighted, both in social services and in health and medical care.

Children growing up near serious illness, disability, addiction problems, violence or death need to be seen. They need to receive information – and support – that is adapted to their age and situation. It is important preventive work.

Miljöpartiet also views it positively that replacement services according to LSS are made more flexible. It is an important measure for many, and it is reasonable that the support is not locked into always needing to be performed in the home.

But here we also need to highlight something more. LSS is a rights-based legislation that has been of crucial importance for many people with disabilities and their families. At the same time, the law has been eroded over time. What we would most of all like to see is that a comprehensive overhaul of LSS is undertaken.

The National Audit Office has recently directed criticism, and the Parliamentary Ombudsman has also highlighted serious situations. It would therefore have been good if a rethink had been made in the work for the entire LSS.

Overall, the direction of the bill is good. It strengthens continuity, it strengthens the perspective of relatives, and it clarifies important areas of responsibility. But, Mr. Speaker, good legislation must also be capable of being implemented in practice. And it is here that we see the weakness in the government's policy.

The government presents more requirements and more tasks for municipalities and regions, but it does not provide welfare with the long-term economic conditions that are required. This does not only concern this bill, and it does not only concern elderly care, social services, or healthcare in general.

Municipalities and regions are already in a very pressured situation. Costs have increased. Needs are growing. Staff are often pushed to their limits. At the same time, the government has deliberately chosen to prioritize large tax cuts over strengthening the basic funding of welfare through, for example, increased general state grants. This has consequences.

The municipalities are to do more, but without receiving the resources required. This will make it harder to improve the working environment in elderly care, harder to retain staff, and harder to create the continuity that the bill aims to strengthen. It will also be harder to meet new, stricter legal requirements. The municipalities must manage to offer a fixed care contact in assisted living. They must strengthen the support for relatives. They must handle the increased requirements linked to language in elderly care that the Riksdag recently decided on. And all this is to take place in a reality where many operations already lack both staff and resources.

Miljöpartiet argues that a different prioritization is needed. The state needs to take greater responsibility for the financing of welfare through general state grants to municipalities and regions. This is central to being able to provide the long-term perspective and the possibility to plan that is required.

The second major Achilles' heel and challenge for this reform to have an effect is the supply of competence. The proposal for a fixed care contact is based on the existence of trained nursing assistants. This is fundamentally reasonable. Nursing assistants have a central role in elderly care, and their competence is crucial for quality, security, and patient safety.

We must, however, be honest that Sweden has a major shortage of trained nursing assistants. That shortage is particularly noticeable in smaller municipalities and in northern Sweden, where I live. There, the distances are great, the recruitment base is smaller, and the competition for staff is often fierce. It is not a temporary challenge but a long-term structural issue.

If the state introduces requirements for more tasks to be carried out by nursing assistants but does not at the same time ensure that a more unified approach is taken, so that more people can educate themselves, further educate themselves and want to stay in the profession, the reform risks not having the intended effect. Then the same staff can be given even more tasks, and while care contact can become a responsibility on paper, it may be without sufficient conditions in everyday life.

Mr. Speaker! The Green Party stands, as stated, behind the proposal in the bill. But we have a reservation together with the Left Party regarding modernized language in the legislation. We see in the proposal that terms such as mental disorder and abuse are still used. We consider this to be somewhat distressing, and we believe it is time to modernize the language. The legislation should be objective and correct and be based on today's knowledge. It should not use words that risk stigmatizing people or reinforcing old views.

I would like to conclude by moving for approval of reservation 3.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Dan Hovskär (KD)

Mr. Speaker! I would like to begin by expressing my approval of the proposal in the report.

A society is not tested in its strongest moments, but when it meets people when life is at its most vulnerable. For us Christian Democrats, it is a self-evident starting point. The dignity in the welfare state is determined in the encounter with the elderly person who needs care, with the child living in vulnerability, and with the relative who bears a heavy responsibility in silence. Therefore, it is very welcome that we today discuss measures to strengthen continuity in elderly care and support for relatives.

Mr. Speaker! That those who live in residential care for the elderly should be offered a fixed care contact is of great importance. Continuity and security are not a detail but the very foundation of quality of life. The elderly person should not have to be met by a constant stream of new faces. It creates insecurity, especially for those who may already be frail or ill or live with cognitive impairment. Instead, there needs to be a clear contact – a person who knows the individual's needs, habits, and wishes, someone who sees the whole human being and not just the needs. It is an important step towards a more dignified elderly care.

Mr. Speaker! At the same time, we know that a large part of the care and support in Sweden is carried by relatives. Every day they make invaluable contributions, often without being seen and under great pressure. They support, care, coordinate, and are there when society does not always suffice. Therefore, it is positive that the support for relatives is now strengthened and that the social welfare committee's responsibility to offer information, guidance, and support contact is clarified. It is an important step.

That is why the regulatory framework must also be clear, legally secure, and sustainable over time. When help is needed most, people should be met with security, not with uncertainties, insecure applications, or fear of being questioned in hindsight.

Mr. Speaker! It is particularly important to strengthen the children's perspective. Children living with a seriously ill parent or a severely ill sibling, or who suffer a sudden loss, are in a very vulnerable situation. These children need to be seen. They need to be identified in time. And they need to receive support that is adapted to their situation. Therefore, it is important that the responsibilities of both the social welfare committee and the health and medical care services are clarified. No one should fall through the cracks, least of all a child.

Mr. Speaker! In the budget bill for 2026, the government is investing 300 million kronor to strengthen the caregiver support, and an equal amount annually from 2027. It is an important and long-awaited investment. But it is only a beginning. Now the work must continue. More of the proposals must become a reality in people's everyday lives.

For us Christian Democrats, it is clear that one needs to go further. We want, among other things, to investigate the possibility of introducing a new support: care of a parent, cf. Just as one can today take leave to take care of a sick child, as an adult one should be entitled to a number of days per year to be able to help one's elderly parents during medical visits, sudden illness, or other situations in life's more demanding stages. It is a natural and necessary adaptation of the social insurance system to today's reality.

Relatives give of their time, their care, and their love. They create security and dignity in everyday life for those who need it most. It is valuable, and it is truly important, we Christian Democrats believe. That is where this new support, parental care, would do great good.

Mr. Speaker! We also want to strengthen information, so that more people are aware of their rights. We want to improve the coordination between healthcare, the municipality, and Försäkringskassan. And we want to develop support for relatives beyond financial compensation, through relief, support measures, and better opportunities to combine responsibility for loved ones with working life. The truth is simple: Financial compensation is important, but it is not the whole answer.

Mr. Speaker! Relatives already today bear a very heavy responsibility in care and support. Society must meet this with respect but also with order, with clear rules, with functioning support and with a policy that sees the whole human being, not just the system.

Sweden is more than the welfare state. It is families. It is relationships. It is responsibility. And it is love. It is people who show up for each other every day. Now it is time to let politics reflect this, to show that the family is not just a given in people's lives but also a given starting point in politics.

Mr. Speaker! For us Christian Democrats, the direction is clear. We want to strengthen the continuity in elderly care. We want to strengthen the support for relatives. We see the children in vulnerable situations. We do it based on humanity, responsibility, and respect for every person's inviolable value. No human being should have to bear life's heaviest moments alone.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Malin Danielsson (L)

Mr. Speaker! Almost every fifth person today provides some form of care, help, or regular support to a close relative. It could be an elderly relative, a child with a disability, or someone with a long-term illness. In different ways, one supports and helps the relative with what others take for granted that they can manage themselves.

The group of relatives who provide care or support is large and varied and has different needs for support. It includes people of all ages, from children to the elderly. The relatives' efforts are incredibly valuable. A fundamental and important principle is that their commitment and participation must always be based on voluntariness, not on the fact that society's efforts for their relatives are lacking.

Some time ago, I met one of all those relatives who provide care, and I have not been able to let go of her story since. Her husband lived in a residential home for the elderly. She told, quite despairingly, about how her energy was spent sitting in telephone queues, keeping to telephone hours, and chasing different people so that he would receive the care and attention he needed, even though he actually lived in a residential home for the elderly. The role of being the spider in the web was placed on her against her will.

When we met, she told me with tears in her eyes that she would have been with him that day. We met later in the day, and she would have been there in the morning, the time of day when he has the strength to receive visitors. But instead, she had had to sit in a telephone queue to the municipality's caseworker all morning. This meant that she once again missed an opportunity to just be with her husband during what might be the last time in his life. I just want to be a relative, not a coordinator in his life, she said to me.

This story is unfortunately not unique. Unfortunately, this is common among spouses, partners, and children. There are many who every day involuntarily need to act as the spider in the web. Therefore, it is so important that we now move forward with fixed care contact even in special housing. This is something that the Corona Commission submitted a proposal for already in 2020 and which has been introduced within home care a couple of years ago.

A fixed care contact will make life easier. One knows who to turn to, both as a resident and as a relative. We do not have the evaluations ready yet regarding the change within home care, but those I meet who have received a fixed care contact in home care experience the change as very positive. It has led to better continuity and follow-up in the places where it is made to work. It is important that we make it work across the whole country.

Mr. Speaker! The other day, Bräcke diakoni released a report on what it is like to be a parent to adult children with disabilities. The title of the report is: My most tender point and greatest worry – what happens next? More than two-thirds of the parents interviewed in the report experience that they have not received the support they need as relatives. The great worry that the title refers to is what happens next with the adult children, when one might no longer be there or no longer has the strength.

A mother expresses it this way: ”We are too tired to manage to plan ahead. It is just a matter of surviving for the moment. This is really needed but it must be easy to get to. The energy to plan ahead is not there, even though it is of the utmost importance!” The report also surprisingly shows that very many, more than a quarter, do not even know where to turn to get support.

With the decision we make today, it is clarified that the municipalities' social welfare committees shall offer information and guidance as well as a support contact to the person who cares for or supports the relative. The support contact shall meet the individual's need for information and guidance but also be a support in the planning of the measures that need to be taken – simply the spider in the web. This will be a major step in the right direction when it is fully implemented.

Mr. Speaker! It is not only the one who supports or cares for a relative who needs support. It can often be the case that children do not receive the support they need when their parents are seriously ill. They are forgotten in the large process surrounding the illness. The same can apply to children with siblings who are seriously ill.

The association Maskrosbarn has, in a project they are currently carrying out thanks to the General Inheritance Fund, noted the need for support and information for children whose parents have mental illness. The project is named: Why does dad sleep all day? It aims to be a web-based training for healthcare staff.

In the project, children and young people have been interviewed. Here is a statement that says quite a lot about children's situation when a parent is affected by illness: I would have wanted someone to say "it is not your fault," because for a long time I believed that I was doing something wrong and that I should have been kinder, quieter or more helpful. I carried a guilt that should never have been mine.

This is a typical example of not catching the people around them, who are also affected but do not receive the support they need when someone develops a serious illness or passes away. Health and medical care, healthcare providers, and social welfare committees will now receive a clearer mandate to catch children and siblings and provide them with support in what they are going through. It is much awaited.

Mr. Speaker! Another improvement occurring with the report concerns relief services. Relief service is an important measure within LSS which means that parents of children who have a disability and a very large care need can receive relief. It can involve getting time to give siblings a little more attention, to recover and rest, or to do things that one has had to set aside due to the child's care needs, which have filled all the hours of the day. In the current situation, relief service is only permitted in the home. But now, this limitation will be removed and it will be made possible to use relief service even outside the home.

This opens up new possibilities. If a child with a significant disability can be provided with excretion services even during a leisure activity, the parent can stay at home and have time for the child's siblings to read homework, watch a movie together or do whatever they want – or just get some recovery at home and be by themselves at home. It is very much longed for by many of these parents, who carry an incredibly heavy burden for the sake of their children and who want to continue to be the support for their children but who do not always manage it because of the situation they are in.

Mr. Speaker! I know that I have exceeded my speaking time, but I must still say something about a matter that Nadja Awad said here earlier. She linked the scandals that have occurred within elderly care with CEOs' salaries in private companies. In that case, I just want to remind everyone who bore the responsibility during the major scandals. In Uppsala, it concerned a municipal administration's elderly care, and it was a Vänsterpartist who led the committee and who had to resign. In Gothenburg, it concerned a Vänsterpartist who was "vice CEO" – not for a company but for the municipal committee. The connection that Nadja Awad made, I think, is an example of somewhat dishonest debating technique. Unfortunately, we did not have time for any exchange of remarks before the question period, but I think this should be said.

I vote in favor of the proposal in the report.

The deliberation was hereby concluded.

(A decision was to be taken on 20 May.)

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)