Home care

Home help is various forms of care which your municipality can provide in your home if you need it. It can be personal care and practical assistance. Personal care is help with personal hygiene, getting dressed, getting out of bed, help with eating etc. Practical assistance is help and support for necessary practical tasks such as, for example, cleaning, laundry and shopping.

You can obtain home care if you have a disability or were ill for a time and therefore no longer have the physical and mental skills that you had previously. The decision on what help you may obtain is made by the municipality on the basis of an assessment of your needs.

You can obtain help with:

• personal care
• practical tasks in the home
• food provision

You may apply to the municipality for home care in the form of permanent help, temporary help or occasional respite. You may obtain help regardless of whether you live alone, in your own home, in shared accommodation, in a care home, or elsewhere.

If you, as a spouse or other close relative, look after a family member who requires care, you may apply to the municipality for respite or relief. The need for care can be due to either physical and mental disabilities. This form of help can be crucial if the person in need of care is to continue living at home.

It is the municipality which, following a specific, individual needs assessment, takes the decision on respite or relief.

In the case of relief, this can be care at home where you are relieved as carer by someone else.

In the case of respite, the patient may receive, for example, temporary day, night or round-the-clock care in a care or nursing home.

If you do not agree with the municipality's decision on home care or relieve or respite, you may make a complaint to the municipality within 4 weeks. The decision must be re-assessed by the municipality within 4 weeks of the complaint being received.

It is the municipal council in your municipality which has general responsibility for care of the elderly. If you wish to make a complaint or enter into a dialogue about the municipality's level of social services or provision of help, you may therefore contact the municipal council.

If the municipality upholds its decision, it will forward your complaint to the National Board of Appeal which will rule on the decision.

You can find the rules in the Consolidation Act on Social Services, Chapter 16.

• Consolidation Act on Social Services (in Danish)

• The Danish Ministry of Health