For over a year, Ilona Gustafsson has slept on a bed in her mother’s living room. If she is not there and can translate into Polish, Krystyna does not cooperate with the home service at all.
The onset of dementia makes the mother fearful and suspicious, says Ilona.
– The staff have tried apps, Google translate, but it doesn’t work. And she doesn’t buy body language at all.
Get help from friends
Once a week, Ilona’s Polish-speaking friend comes and sleeps over with the mother, to relieve Ilona.
The difference in the mother, when she gets to speak Polish, is like night and day, she says.
– She lights up like the sun, and talks and converses and there are no problems at all. Because she feels safe.
Polish-speaking staff available
Through her own contacts, Ilona has found out that a Polish-speaking assistant nurse is employed part-time in another home care group, which is based out of the same premises as Krystyna’s current home care group.
After being at the municipality, she was told that it was possible to match the Polish-speaking nurse with Krystyna – with the requirement that Krystyna then also agree to replace her entire current home care team.
That would risk uprooting the little security that has been built up, says Ilona.
– Then there are 35 new faces we have to get used to, mother wouldn’t be able to handle it. And for what? We don’t know what we’re getting.
Hear Madeleine Andersson, operations manager for the home service, about the possibilities of matching language-savvy home service staff with care recipients who do not understand Swedish – in the clip below:
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Translation apps, cards with pictures, body language are other tools that the home service uses when a care recipient does not understand Swedish. And it works most of the time, says director of operations Madeleine Andersson. Photo: Kaisa Lappalainen/SVT