Iceland: Elderly lose out during economic boom
The Icelandic króna has never been higher; disposableincome (from 1995 to 2003) of individuals has doubled; the banks areposting record profits; a new generation of Icelandic billionaires hasemerged; Icelanders have never bought as many cars or built as manysummer houses; but during these times of economic prosperity, onegroup is being left out. The group that made the sacrifices that madeIceland what it is today – the elderly.
The elderly have been in the public discussion lately because ofinterviews on the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service news programSpotlight last week. According to Spotlight, families are increasinglyforced to hire care takers into nursing homes to take care of theirelderly parents.
Margrét Reynisdóttir told Spotlight interviewer Kristján Kristjánsson,that although her 86 year old mother is in an Alzheimer unit of nursinghome Skjól, her family has had, for the last two years, to hire a caretaker. The care taker assists their mother with her daily needsincluding feeding her and taking her to the restroom. Margrét said thatalthough the employees at Skjól are “wonderful”, they are just too few.According to Margrét, there are only two employees to take care of the12 patients in her mother’s unit. Margrét said that her mother aloneneeds two people to take her to the restroom. Before retiring,Margrét’s mother worked at a nursing home; “we are talking about awoman who had a blue collar job,” said Margrét. She said her mother nowpays many times what she used to earn for the private help. All in allthe family buys 270 hours a month of nursing services to help take careof their mother.