Healthcare in the Netherlands is at a high level and is expensive, very expensive. The Netherlands is aging and that entails costs. To make and keep health care affordable, something needs to change NOW. The obvious must disappear, help must be different. No one likes to take a step back, but unfortunately this will become reality.
Cultural change
A cultural change will have to take place in the Netherlands. People now assume that there is an authority for everything. If people need help, there will be someone somewhere who is paid to help these people, is the general idea. This is going to change, it will no longer be self-evident that care is provided at home. People will have to care for each other more and more and society will have to be aware of this. Nowadays people often find it difficult to call on friends, acquaintances and neighbors, but because of the increasingly smaller and increasingly separated families, this will also have to change. And this change will have to take place as quickly as possible. We must not pass on current problems to the next generation. Today’s thirty-somethings have enough problems without having to deal with this as well.
Stand in your own strength
The elderly and chronically ill will have to function independently for as long as possible and that is not possible without a social network. You need people you can call on when you need transportation, when you need to do some shopping or do a job around the house. We often dare to ask this when it concerns an incidental request for help, but when the request for help recurs regularly it becomes a different story. It then becomes a lot more difficult to constantly rely on your social network.
I have the right to care
People with a small social network will also need to be helped and the municipality will have to direct this. The municipality and citizens must support and strengthen each other in this. Instead of formal (paid) care, informal (voluntary) care will increasingly be used. More initiatives are also expected from people who need help. For example, you could also share a mobility scooter with the neighbor, who also needs one. This is then referred to in a nice word.
Taking care of your loved ones will have to become self-evident, but that is difficult. You cannot force people to do something for someone else and many people wear blinders. They are busy, they manage themselves, so someone else will probably be able to manage themselves too. Publicity will be necessary to make people aware and to motivate them. The municipalities will have to use social network strategies to ensure continuity.
Building a social network
Building a social network becomes a duty in this case. People without a social network or with a small social network will have to bear the consequences. The added value of a social network will only increase in the future. If you have a small social network and you want to expand it, read the article How do you make a sociogram? for useful tips.
A social network also makes life much more pleasant. According to research, lonely people live shorter because loneliness has a negative effect on the cardiovascular system, nervous system and immune system.
Benefits of shared care
Does it only have disadvantages that healthcare becomes a social problem instead of a government problem? In any case, it has one advantage: volunteering and helping your neighbors promotes social cohesion in a neighborhood. People get to know each other better and know that their efforts will now pay off. If you work for the residents of your neighborhood now, you can probably count on help when you need it.
Valuation
A careful volunteer policy is necessary to get and keep volunteers motivated. Recognition and appreciation for the work of volunteers is important, but also social contact and opportunities for self-development. The municipality will have to take this into account when coaching its volunteers. If this does not happen, it will be difficult to motivate enough people to do volunteer work.