Holistic care

Holistic care refers to coherent and comprehensive care and support programs. It includes personal care, practical assistance, and rehabilitation of physical impairments caused by illness, which are not treated in connection with hospitalization. The aim of holistic care is both rehabilitative, preventive and maintenance-oriented.

Personal care may, for example, include assistance or support with bathing, dressing and undressing, and other aspects of personal care. Assistance with necessary household tasks may include help or assistance with cleaning, changing bed linen, folding clothes, preparing food, or putting groceries away. Rehabilitation of physical impairments caused by illness unrelated to hospitalization may be relevant, for example, if you are weakened after prolonged bed rest at home due to an illness like the flu or after a fall, and where there is a need for regaining lost or reduced functional abilities.

The purpose of holistic care is to ensure a holistic approach to your overall life situation. It is up to each municipality to decide how individual care and support programs under holistic care are structured.

The help and support you receive as part of your assigned care and support program is planned and provided through dialogue between you and the care worker, based on a professional assessment of your current needs and resources. The help and support must be continuous, flexible, and coherent, and involve as few different caregivers in your home as possible.

Holistic care is offered to older individuals who, due to reduced physical, mental, or social capabilities, need help or support in their daily lives. The municipality decides whether you qualify for care based on an assessment of your specific needs.

You can receive holistic care regardless of whether you live alone, with others, in your own home, in shared housing, or in a care home.

You must contact the municipality to apply for holistic care. This can be done, for example, by calling the municipal visitation office.

The municipality will evaluate your situation and decide based on that whether you qualify for assistance. If you are granted holistic care, you will be assigned a care and support program.

If you are entitled to holistic care, you can also receive assistance while staying in a different municipality than your home municipality, for instance, during a holiday stay at a summer house.

If you are approved for holistic care, the municipality must ensure that you can choose between at least two different providers of the care services, one of which can be the municipality itself. The municipality must inform you about your available provider options.

You also have the option of choosing a specific person to provide the care. This person must meet the municipality’s quality standards and be approved by the municipality, which will then make a contract with the individual.

If you are dissatisfied with a specific decision regarding the extent of help provided, or if you have been denied holistic care, you can file a complaint about the decision.

Complaints about decisions or failure to follow procedural rules are handled by the Danish National Board of Appeal (Ankestyrelsen). However, your municipality must first have the opportunity to review the case and reassess whether it made the correct decision. Therefore, your complaint must initially be submitted to the municipality.

You must file your complaint within four weeks of receiving the municipality's decision. After that, the municipality in general has four weeks to reassess the case. If the municipality maintains its decision, it will forward your complaint to the Danish National Board of Appeal.

The municipal council is ultimately responsible for providing long-term care and for organizing how such care is provided. This means the municipal council must ensure that you receive the necessary assistance you need. As a citizen, you may contact the municipal council, which is the politically responsible authority, if you are dissatisfied with the service level in your municipality.

The mayor is the highest authority responsible for the organization of the municipal administration, which includes ensuring that case processing is carried out appropriately. Therefore, if you wish to complain about how your case was handled or about a specific employee, you should contact the municipality’s mayor.

You can find the regulation for holistic care and the free choice of provider of holistic care in the Danish Elderly Act (ældreloven), §§ 9-12, and § 18.

• The Danish Elderly Act on Holistic Care (ældreloven) (in Danish)

You can read more in the official guidance to the Danish Elderly Act. 

• Guidance to the Danish Elderly Act (in Danish)

• The Danish Ministry of Health