Sweden admits failure to protect elderly in care homes

Yahoo – AFP, Pia OHLIN, May 10, 2020

Sweden, whose softer virus approach has garnered international attention, admits it
has failed to adequately protect the elderly, with around half of COVID-19 deaths
occurring among nursing home residents (AFP Photo/Jonathan NACKSTRAND)

Stockholm (AFP) - Bjorn Branngard's mother died in a Stockholm nursing home where five of the eight people in her section and more than a third of residents have so far succumbed to the new coronavirus.

"They didn't have time to take care of my mother," he told AFP.

Her coronavirus test came back negative two days after her death, but Branngard, who claims she died of neglect, says the nursing home staff lacked protective gear and were spreading the virus around the home.

Sweden, whose softer approach to the coronavirus has garnered international attention, admits it has failed to adequately protect the elderly, with around half of COVID-19 deaths occurring among nursing home residents.

Reports have flooded Swedish media in recent weeks of care home staff continuing to work despite a lack of protective gear.

Others have refused to work and workers are encouraged to stay home even with mild symptoms, leaving homes short-staffed.

Other personnel have admitted going to work despite exhibiting symptoms of the virus, potentially infecting residents, while some elderly have reportedly been infected while admitted to hospital for other treatments and then sent back to care homes where they unwittingly spread the disease.

Sweden has reported 3,220 deaths from the virus as of Saturday.

The country said early on that shielding those 70 and older was its top priority.

Yet 90 percent of those who had died as of April 28 were over the age of 70. Half were nursing home residents, and another quarter were receiving care at home, statistics from the Swedish Board of Health and Welfare show.

"We failed to protect our elderly. That's really serious, and a failure for society as a whole. We have to learn from this, we're not done with this pandemic yet," Health and Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren told Swedish Television recently.

Reports have flooded Swedish media of care home staff continuing to work 

despite a lack of protective gear (AFP Photo/Jonathan NACKSTRAND)

'Staff spread the virus'

Unlike many European countries, Sweden has kept its primary schools open as well as bars and restaurants, while urging people to respect social distancing and hygiene recommendations.

It did, however, ban visits to care homes on March 31.

Sweden's Nordic neighbours also introduced bans around the same time, but have recorded far fewer care home deaths.

But unlike in those countries, Swedish nursing homes are often large complexes with hundreds of residents.

They are only available to those in very poor health and unable to care for themselves, and residents are therefore "a very vulnerable group", according to Henrik Lysell of the Board of Health and Welfare.

Bjorn Branngard told AFP the personnel at his mother's home did not have proper protective gear.

"There was no protection. The personnel were going between different sections and spreading the virus."

In greater Stockholm, the epicentre of Sweden's virus spread, 55 percent of nursing homes have so far confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Region Stockholm health authorities.

In greater Stockholm, the epicentre of Sweden's virus spread, 55 percent of nursing 

homes, where unions say some 40 percent of staff are unskilled workers on short-term 

contracts, have confirmed COVID-19 cases, local authorities say (AFP Photo/Jonathan 

NACKSTRAND)

Poor working conditions

Kommunal, Sweden's largest union for municipal employees which includes many care workers, has meanwhile blamed precarious working conditions for the unfolding tragedy.

It said that in March, 40 percent of staff at Stockholm nursing homes were unskilled workers employed on short-term contracts, with hourly wages and no job security, while 23 percent were temps.

In other words: people who often can't afford not to go to work even if they're sick.

"There are a lot of different people who work at several nursing homes, and that also leads to a greater spread," the head of Kommunal's nursing home division, Ulf Bjerregaard, said.

At the end of April, Kommunal filed a complaint to the Swedish Work Environment Authority, claiming that 27 of the 96 residents at the home where Branngard's mother lived had so far died of the virus, and yet staff were not being provided protective gear or offered testing.

The authority is studying the complaint, and prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation.

Abdullah, a pseudonym for a 21-year-old refugee who didn't want to disclose his real name, has worked as an assistant in a care home outside Stockholm for two years.

He told AFP about a resident treated in hospital for a broken leg.

"She tested negative for the virus when she was with us. When she returned from the hospital three days later, she was positive," he said.

"We had protective aprons but no masks when we were working with her," he said, adding that he has since refused to go to work.

The Public Health Agency meanwhile said efforts to improve basic hygiene routines in the homes were paying off.

"Stockholm has actually had a clear decrease in cases (in nursing homes), that feels positive," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters on Thursday.

Nursing home workers win big in Spain's Christmas lottery

Yahoo – AFP, 23 December 2017

Pupils of the San Ildefonso school sing out a winning number during the draw 

of Spain's Christmas lottery "El Gordo" at the Royal Theatre in Madrid

Spain's annual Christmas lottery on Friday showered over 10 million euros on employees of a nursing home in a struggling town where one in five people is out of work.

Celebrating employees of the "Sagrado Corazon" nursing home in the central town of Campo de Criptana, many wearing their white uniforms, jumped up and down, sang and drank sparkling wine outside the building, images broadcast on Spanish TV showed.

Twenty-two workers at the home held at least one ticket bearing the winning number for the first prize, each paying 400,000 euros ($475,000).

"They are workers who really need it," the home's director, Ana Maria Campos, told local media.

A truck driver who volunteers at the nursing home bought 30 winning tickets during a trip to the northwestern region of Galicia.

He kept two for himself, gave one to each of his two brothers and re-sold the remaining 26 to staff at the nursing home.

"I am thrilled that I brought so much luck and money to my hometown," Jesus Martinez, 54, who has been a volunteer at the home for the past decade, told online newspaper El Espanol.

His two tickets won him 800,000 euros while the nursing home staff's 26 tickets will award them a combined 10.4 million euros.

Campo de Criptana mayor Antonio Lucas-Torres said he was "very happy, because anything that rains money on Criptana is good because it has repercussions on the economy of the town."

Some winners celebrate winning "El Gordo" lottery first prize

The town of around 14,000 residents, located in an arid plain in the province of Ciudad Real, has an unemployment rate of 19.4 percent.

"Everyone deserves to win, but these people especially so because they are very hard working. They have given their all to this nursing home," Lucas-Torres added.

Spain's annual Christmas lottery, known as "El Gordo" or "The Fat One", is ranked as the world's richest, handing out a total of 2.38 billion euros this year.

Unlike other big lotteries that generate just a few big winners, Spain's Christmas lottery aims to share the wealth, with thousands of numbers getting a prize.

This year's winning number - 71198 - appeared on 1,600 tickets, for a total payout of 680 million euros.

The vast majority, 1,300 tickets, were sold in Galicia.

The Christmas lottery has been held uninterrupted since 1812. Even Spain's 1936-39 civil war did not end it, as each side held its own draw during the conflict.

It has become a popular Christmas tradition in Spain, with friends, colleagues and bar regulars banding together to buy tickets.

The standard ticket costs 20 euros ($22) and queues form outside lottery stores weeks ahead of the televised draw, which goes on for over three hours.

Children from a Madrid school that used to be a home for orphans pick small wooden balls bearing the winning numbers and prizes out of two giant tumblers, and sing them out.

Italy's 100 club village reveals its secret

Yahoo – AFP, September 5, 2016

Italian Antonio Vassallo, 100 years-old, and his wife Amina Fedollo, 93, pose
 in their house in Acciaroli, southern Italy, on August 23, 2016 (AFP Photo/
Mario Laporta)

Rome (AFP) - Scientists on Monday revealed part of the secret to why a small village in southern Italy has an unusual number of centenarians -- low levels of a particular hormone that affects circulation.

Italian and US experts have spent the last six months investigating the extraordinary longevity of residents of Acciaroli, where more than one in 10 -- 81 at the mayor's last count -- of the village's population of 700 is over 100 years old.

Acciaroli is part of the Cilento coast, an area of outstanding natural beauty where the late US nutritionist Ancel Keys first established convincing evidence of the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet based on olive oil and rich in fresh fruit, vegetables and fish.

As well as reaching extremely old age, people in Acciaroli and tiny communities nearby also seem to be largely immune to dementia, heart disease and other chronic conditions associated with ageing in most of the Western world.

Researchers from Rome's Sapienza University and the San Diego School of Medicine said Monday that the explanation could lie in low levels of adrenomedullin, a hormone that acts to widen blood vessels.

Adrenomedullin is present "in a much reduced quantity in the subjects studied and seems to act as a powerful protecting factor, helping the optimal development of microcirculation", or capillary circulation, they said in a statement.

Capillary blood vessels tend to degenerate in older people, but the seniors in Cilento had capillaries of the sort found in much younger people, even those in their 20s.

The study also found "metabolites present (in the bodies of those studied) which may have a positive influence on longevity and the well-being of Cliento's centenarians", the statement said, without giving further details.

The researchers have decided to extend the study and expand their research, including by launching a fundraising campaign.

Aside from blood tests, the researchers also carried out cardiac and neurological tests, Alan S. Maisel, the San Diego cardiologist heading up the project, told AFP.

The scientists are looking into whether genetics could combine with lifestyle factors -- diet and physical activity -- to extend the villagers' longevity.

The Cilento locals all eat rosemary -- known to improve brain function -- almost every day, and also all practise some physical activity daily, such as fishing, walking or gardening, another line of enquiry for the scientists.

Before Monday's release of results, Maisel also pointed to what may be another important ingredient in the recipe for a long and happy life.

"Sexual activity among the elderly appears to be rampant," Maisel said. "Maybe living long has something to do with that, it's probably the good air and the joie de vivre."

Crying Greek pensioner: the story behind the poignant photo

Yahoo – AFP, 4 July 2015

Greek pensioner, Giorgos Chatzifotiadis, cries as he sits on the ground 

outside a national bank branch in Thessaloniki on July 3, 2015 (AFP

Photo/Sakis Mitrolidis)

Thessaloniki (Greece) (AFP) - Retiree Giorgos Chatzifotiadis had queued up at three banks in Greece's second city of Thessaloniki on Friday in the hope of withdrawing a pension on behalf of his wife, but all in vain.

When he was told at the fourth that he could not withdraw his 120 euros ($133), it was all too much and he collapsed in tears.

The 77-year-old told AFP that he had broken down because he "cannot stand to see my country in this distress".

A Greek pensioner holds 120 euros

 outside a national bank branch in 

Athens, on July 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Aris Messinis)

"That's why I feel so beaten, more than for my own personal problems," Chatzifotiadis said.

The image of him sitting outside the bank, openly crying in despair with his savings book and identity card on the floor, was captured by an AFP photographer illustrating how ordinary Greeks are suffering during the country's debt crisis.

Athens had imposed capital controls and shut all banks since Monday to stem a haemorrhage of cash, but on Wednesday allowed some branches to reopen for three days so retirees who have no bank cards could withdraw their pensions -- capped at 120 euros.

Recounting how he had gone from bank to bank in a futile attempt to collect his wife's pension, Chatzifotiadis said when he was told at the fourth "that I could not get the money, I just collapsed".

Both he and his wife, like many Greeks in the north of the country, had spent several years in Germany where he "worked very hard" in a coal mine and later a foundry.

And it is from Berlin, which is being blamed by many in Greece for its hardline stance in demanding the government impose more austerity measures for fresh international aid, that Chatzifotiadis is receiving his wife's pension.

"I see my fellow citizens begging for a few cents to buy bread. I see more and more suicides. I am a sensitive person. I can not stand to see my country in this situation," he said.

"Europe and Greece have made mistakes. We must find a solution," he added.

But Chatzifotiadis feels he can do little to change the situation, and he is not even sure if he would be able to vote at Sunday's referendum on whether to accept international creditors' bailout conditions.

European leaders have warned that a 'No' vote would also mean no to the eurozone.

Pointing out that the polling station is 80 kilometres (50 miles) away, Chatzifotiadis said: "I have no money to go there, unless perhaps if my children would take me in their car."

Related Article:

Across Europe, protesters call for solidarity with Greece

Norway named best place to grow old

Yahoo – AFP, 1 Oct 2014

An elderly woman makes her way through the snow in Norway which tops the
Global AgeWatch index ahead of Sweden (AFP)

Norway is the best place to grow old, according to the latest Global AgeWatch index of 96 countries published on Wednesday, while Afghanistan is the worst.

All but one of the top 10 countries are in Western Europe, North America and Australasia, with Japan the exception at ninth place, according to the ranking which comprises 91 percent of the global population over the age of 60.

Norway tops the index, pushing last year's number one Sweden into second place in the second year the index has been released.

An elderly Afghan man carries firewood over 

his shoulders in Afghanistan -- bottom on the

list of places to live in old age

Unsurprisingly, African countries make up half of the lowest quarter of the index, although Venezuela, Turkey and Serbia are ranked 76th, 77th and 74th respectively.

HelpAge International, the charity which compiled the list, said economic growth in itself was not enough to improve the lives of older people.

"Specific policies need to be put in place to address the implications of ageing," said the report, published on the United Nations International Day of Older Persons.

"Policies on income security in Mexico (30) have lifted it 26 places in the overall rankings since last year despite being less wealthy than Turkey (77)."

The index is based on 13 indicators grouped into four areas: income security; health status; capability, which includes employment and educational status; and the enabling environment, including issues such as physical safety.

Some countries fare better than others in different areas. Japan tops the rankings when it comes to health, while Switzerland has the best environment for older people.

'Explosion' of pensions

This year's report focuses particularly on income security, namely pensions, which older people consistently identify as their top priority to fend off the risk of poverty.

With rising numbers of old people -- two billion over the age of 60 by 2050, a similar number as children under 15 -- HelpAge International chief Toby Porter said pensions were vital for all governments.

"Incomes are often too low to save for old age, which is why there's such a need for a basic social pension now," he said.

African countries make up half of the

lowest quarter of the index

In low and middle-income countries, only one in four people over 65 receive a pension while worldwide, half of the global population do not have a pension, the report said.

But it applauds an "explosion" of new tax-financed, non-contributory pensions over the past two decades, which provide regular income for the very poorest.

Across Latin America, countries have "dramatically extended coverage" of social pensions, helping push them up the global rankings.

This reflects a global trend that saw China introduce a rural social pension in 2009, reaching 133 million more people, and Nepal and Thailand follow a similar route.

"In most European Union countries, pensions systems as a whole do more to reduce inequality than all other parts of the tax or benefit system combined," said Porter.

The top 10 in the index are: Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, Iceland, United States, Japan and New Zealand.

The bottom 10 are: Iraq, Zambia, Uganda, Jordan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Malawi, West Bank and Gaza, Mozambique and Afghanistan.

Ex-archbishop Carey backs assisted suicide

Yahoo – AFP, 12 July 2014

Dr George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, speaks at the funeral of Queen

Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in London on April 9, 2002 (AFP Photo/Ben Curtis)

London (AFP) - The former leader of the Church of England George Carey on Saturday said he had changed his mind and would support a British bill to allow assisted suicide in certain cases.

Current Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby later restated his and the Church's opposition to the bill, saying it could open the way to abuse and neglect of older people.

But Carey, who now sits in the House of Lords -- parliament's upper chamber -- after leaving office as the spiritual leader of the world's Anglicans in 2002, told the Daily Mail that he had dropped his long-standing opposition.

"The fact is I've changed my mind," he wrote in a piece for the British newspaper.

"The old philosophical certainties have collapsed in the face of the reality of needless suffering," he explained.

The former cleric, 78, said he would support the bill, brought by Lord Charles Falconer, which would allow mentally-capable adults to request help to die if they were suffering from a terminal illness and had less than six months to live.

It is due to be debated in the House of Lords next week.

The Church of England has consistently argued for no law change, and its current leader repeated his opposition.

"It would be very naive to think that many of the elderly people who are abused and neglected each year, as well as many severely disabled individuals, would not be put under pressure to end their lives if assisted suicide were permitted by law," he wrote in the Times.

"It would be equally naive to believe, as the Assisted Dying Bill suggests, that such pressure could be recognised in every instance by doctors given the task of assessing requests for assisted suicide," he warned.

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 "Current" Events –  Apr 10, 2005 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... The Ethics of Life

You, as a Human Being, are designed to appreciate and love life. But you put it in a box. You think you live once. You say, life is precious; make it count; keep it going at all costs; make it work. And the underlying thought is that because you only go around one time, all the purpose is wrapped up in one lifetime. Well, I'm going to give you something to think about, something that happened just recently that tens of millions of people all over earth who have the western news media know of.

It was all about one woman's life, and you know who I'm talking about. I'm talking about Terri [Terri Schiavo]. And I'm going to talk about Terri because, you know, she's here [speaking of the real Terri]! And I'm going to give you a perspective about Terri that perhaps you hadn't thought about before, and as I do it, she's going to watch.

It's very metaphysical, you know? This perspective is one from my side of the veil. Terri leaned into the wind of birth many years ago, just as you did. I was there, too. There were potentials laying in front of her - a track that she could take if she wished. There was no predestination, only predispositions of energy that laid before her: the parents she would have (which she had selected), the man she might meet or marry, the accident waiting to happen. All of these things were in her "potential track," and she could have chosen not to go there.

But like so many of you, she looked at it and examined it. These were the times we spoke to her and said, "Dear one, you're going into another Human lifetime that has a potential that's awesome - grander than most Humans on the planet will ever experience. You'll get to present something to tens of millions of people. You'll make them think about life. You'll change the legal system of your country. You'll awaken peoples' awareness to situations that need to be addressed with respect to morality, integrity, and even intuition. Will you do it?"

And I remember what she said. The grand angel who stood before me, who you now call Terri, smiled broadly and said, "I'm ready for that." And some of you cry in your sorrow and say "Why is this Human dead? How could such a thing be tolerated? Why would such a thing happen? Life is so precious." And I ask you this, as Terri looks on in her joy, would you take this away from her? Would you take that away from humanity, what she showed and did that resulted directly in her passing?

Start thinking of these things, perhaps differently. We've told you before that there are even those Human Beings who come in with a predisposition of suicide! What a horrible thought, you might say. "Kryon, could that even be appropriate?" And we say this: More than appropriate, it's by design! "But why should that be?" You might say. "What a horrible dishonorable death." And if that's your reaction, you're placing the whole grand picture in your own little Human box.

When you start examining it spiritually, without Human bias, you start to see that around a suicide there's this energy that develops. It's all about the family. Is there shame? Is there drama? Does it kick the family in the pants so that perhaps they might study things they never did - or perhaps they might they even look within themselves for spirituality? Blessed is the one that comes in with these tasks [like suicide]. There are so many of them who do. For these are the grease of personal change within families, and provide a gift that is grand!

You see, Spirit looks at these things differently. The curtain goes up, it goes down. You come and you go and there are profound lessons, some of which are taught harshly, by those who teach them through their own deaths.

"Well, what is it Kryon? Don't dodge the question with a diversion to suicide, for this isn't what Terri did. Is it proper or is it improper to have somebody in this vegetative state put to death by others around her?" Our answer: Exactly which Human are you talking about? You want a blanket answer, don't you? For six and half billion souls and paths, you want one answer for all. Well, you won't get one. For Terri, the answer is a solid yes. It was as it should have been. She came in with this grand opportunity to change the world, and she did it while everyone watched.

There is appropriateness in all things and sometimes you create for yourselves what seems to be inappropriate. Yet later you understand what the gift was within the challenge. Celebrate Terri, and don't think of this as a shameful thing that Humans did to her. Think of it instead as a book that was written for you to look at, one which pushes you to a place to ask, "What should we do about this now, personally? What should our legislatures do about this, if anything? How can we approach these things more humanely and with more honor? Is our culture addressing this issue? Are we addressing this issue personally?" Let's put these questions where they belong. It's not about "right to life"; it's about the appropriateness of "this life." Each case is individual, and some are profoundly given for the planet and for those around the individual.

Oh, as all of you came into this planet and leaned into the wind of birth separately, each was unique. Each of you has a different story, a different goal, but all have the same purpose: the elevation of the vibration of the planet. Sometimes it happens to many of you at the same time. We'll get to that before we finish. ..."

"THE THREE WINDS" – Feb 23-24, 2013 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Humanity, Home - other side of the veil, Wind of Birth - Birth, Wind of Existence - Life, Wind of Transition - Death) - (Text version)

Gay and lesbian old people's home planned in Spain

26 December Foundation, which is behind Madrid scheme, says some elderly people hide sexuality to avoid rejection by peers

theguardian.com, Stephen Burgen in Barcelona, Monday 14 April 2014

Spain's first old people's home for gay and lesbian pensioners is to open in a converted hotel in Madrid.

Federico Armenteros, president of the 26 December Foundation, which is behind the scheme, said that as far as society was concerned "elderly LGTB don't exist".

He said the home would not be exclusively for gay people. "We're not going to ask you who you sleep with when you apply," he said. "Anyone can come, the only thing to bear in mind is that it specialises in elderly LGTBs. As it is, there are homes for ex-servicemen, nuns or retired workers from specific companies and no one says they are being discriminatory."

Until late 1978, gay people in Spain were classified by law as "dangerous" and faced prison or internment in re-education centres, as well as having their movements restricted. The foundation takes its name from the date the law was reformed.

Boti García, president of Spain's LGTB federation, said: "When people think of LGTB people, they think of young people. There's a tendency, as there is in society as a whole, to leave out the elderly."

Armenteros said elderly people in general were not as accepting of gay and lesbian people, and as result some went back into the closet in old age, especially if they were in a home. "They don't have children and grandchildren they can talk about and often they conceal their sexual orientation to avoid rejection."

The foundation is also planning a civic centre for the same community in the Lavapiés neighbourhood of Madrid, due to be completed within the next few months. It will offer painting classes, physiotherapy, a classroom for the University of the Elderly and a gym, among other things.

"Neither the centre nor the home will be places to park old people," said Armenteros. "We want elderly people to feel useful, that they have a good time and feel at home." The home is due to open in 2015.

(Volkskrant/ANP)

Related Article:

Amsterdam gets first home care organisation for gay patients