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Care for the elderly in Wervik, Belgium
Introduction Measures of success Funding arrangements Working with partners Problems with expanding the full-service residential area Outcomes and impact Introduction
Wervik is a town of 17,500 inhabitants in rural West Flanders, Belgium. The older population in Wervik is growing and the number of younger people able to care for them is diminishing. Many older people acknowledge that they cannot cope on their own, although they do not necessarily want to go into residential care.
The Wervik Project aims to offer support to this group so that they could continue living in a home environment for as long as possible, with access to key care services nearby.
Myriam Deloddere, Manager of the Public Social Welfare Service (OCMW), Wervik, decided to develop a full-service residential care area in Wervik, having heard of a similar system in the Netherlands.
OCMW Wervik website
Since January 2004, older people in Wervik have had access to homes no further than 750 metres from the local hospital with a 24-hour care centre. Two new developments with 52 individual homes are under construction to enable life-long home living with immediate access to hospital care.
Not all elderly people in the area live in this type of housing. Many live in their own homes, which are often not adapted to their needs. The OCMW has a contract with a real estate agency. This enables older people to buy or rent a property from the agency and receive information on the full-service residential care service.
Measures of success
For the Wervik Project to be successful, a number of issues needed to be addressed:
The new site should have sufficient space to develop additional housing and support services: a minimum of four per cent and a maximum of 25 per cent of the housing must be developed in this way.
A minimum of four per cent and a maximum of 25 per cent of the inhabitants must be able to access services tailored to the needs of older people and people with disabilities.
A 24-hour care centre must be established within a 250-metre radius of the housing scheme.
There is a rest and care home function at the local hospital that provides a 24-hour care centre. Sixty-three homes are currently linked to the centre through an alarm system. Tenants can spend up to 90 nights a year in the hospital. The overnight care package ? which includes nursing, care, an evening meal and breakfast ? costs ?20 per night.
These services are complemented by an extensive range of home care services, including, for a nominal fee, home delivery from local shops. A transport service for elderly residents is also offered, together with ironing and cleaning, affordable clothes and an odd-jobs service. A pedestrian route around the town has been developed with benches at regular intervals.
Deloddere explains:
?There is pressure to expand the area. The problem is manageability. In any event, the model works. It costs money, but it is cheaper for an authority and for the clients than a rest or care home.
?The OCMW agrees that we must place all senior citizens who are not in need of care on the reserve list for care home places. For those in need we will check whether the full-service residential area can offer a solution. These people have to be helped differently, especially if they live in our full-service residential area.?
Funding arrangements
The OCMW receives increased federal government funding to cover the costs of care home places. But it does not receive enough to make money from the service.
The OCMW also receives substantial subsidies from various bodies. Without this it would be hard to offer such cheap services. OCMW also aims to raise money through other means.
Some of the funding is one-off: some of it is on a yearly basis. The majority of funding comes from the OCMW?s central budget.
Working with partners
The OCMW contacted many organisations working in the field. The purpose of the project is not to compete with those organisations. On the contrary, it can inform potential users of this central service about housing, catering, cleaning, nursing at home and so on offered by the organisations.
The OCMW also liaised closely with the council in Wervik and a social housing company.
Problems with expanding the full-service residential area
Funding is available from the Flemish government but the process of drawing this down takes time.
People living outside the area are lobbying to use the service.
There is no additional funding for the OCMW to continue renting the emergency call technology.
There is a lack of volunteers to carry out odd jobs.
Legal procedures, such as buying houses and funding for renovation, impede project progress.
Outcomes and impact
Before this project older people had no seamless service and had to rely predominantly on family members for full-time care. It was often difficult to get the right information about which possible services could be provided at the individual?s home.
With the implementation of the service, people can now contact the call centre or visit the OCMW office to get information on services and housing provided by both the OCMW as well as other agencies.
Local employment was boosted as a result of the Wervik project, which saw more than 50 full and part-time posts created, mainly in cleaning services.
Despite OCMW?s efforts to communicate with different groups, many were sceptical about the project. But by attracting the right motivated people and finding enough money to get started, it is now an indispensable service in the community. It attracts visitors from all over the country, and even from abroad, to witness the project in action. And the project is now copied in several other cities in Flanders.
Page published December 2009.