20% unhappy with home care meal

A fifth of Finnish home care clients are not satisfied with their meal service, according to a national client satisfaction survey conducted for the first time by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).

There is a lot of variation between wellbeing services counties: the share of satisfied clients varies between 66 and 89 per cent, said THL in a press release.

The lowest satisfaction with food and meals is recorded in the Vantaa-Kerava region, where the result for home care is exceptionally poor.

On the contrary, Central Ostrobothnia gets an exceptionally good result in home care meals.

In service housing with 24-hour assistance, regional differences are smaller, and clients are more satisfied with the food than in home care.

Nearly 42,000 clients in home care and service housing with 24-hour assistance in the public and private sector responded to the survey.

More than 24,000 of the respondents received home care services. The data was collected in spring 2022, so the results describe the situation in the regions before the wellbeing services counties started.

‘For home care clients, a meal service is a support service that can be produced by the wellbeing services county or purchased from a private producer. The wellbeing services counties are also responsible for monitoring the quality of the outsourced service. Based on the results, it appears that there are significant differences in the quality of home care meal services. A good nutritional status is a key factor in older persons' functional capacity, so we must pay more attention to the matter in the future’, said Sari Kehusmaa, Chief Specialist of THL.

The share of home care clients who are satisfied with their services is at a good level throughout Finland. The clients consider most of the services adequate, they feel safe, and the nurses are friendly, and they receive services that take their wishes into account.

However, the results show areas where home care clients give better or worse ratings of the service than the national average.

For example, South Ostrobothnia, South Savo, Central Ostrobothnia and Lapland mostly have more satisfied clients than the national average.

On the other hand, in Western Uusimaa and Vantaa and Kerava regions, client ratings are lower than in the rest of the country.

‘The results allow us to examine whether there is room for improvement in the operating practices of the region. However, we should note that response activity was not at a comprehensive level in all regions, which is why regional comparisons must be made with care. Regional response coverage is expected to improve in the first statutory data collection in 2024. This time, as a rule, all operating units must participate in the data collection,’ said Project Co-ordinator Suvi Leppäaho.