The Nordic Model: evolutions in care and space for the dependant ageing in Sweden with some relevance to Denmark and Norway

During the 20th century, the Nordic countries, Denmark with Faroe Islands and Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, have realized five different but similar-looking welfare states, in which social services are distributed in an egalitarian and uniform way. This paper focuses on eldercare and architecture intended to be used for eldercare. It provides a broad overview of how space for ageing in place and the dependant ageing has evolved in the Nordic countries during the 20th century. Moreover, it maps ongoing tendencies in the contemporaneous preparation for the emerging ageing society The Nordic welfare model promotes the concept of home as the ideal place in which to grow old with or without age-related problems. From the outside, the model could be seen as an homogeneous welfare model for older people that supplies either home care services to allow for a prolonged ageing in place, or an individually adjusted care and caring in sheltered housing for the dependent and frail senior. Yet, eldercare in these five countries displays both dissimilarities and similarities. Based on available but rough statistics from the Nordic Council, the ideal balance between these possible outcomes seems to be achieved in Norway. Denmark and Iceland assume an extreme position on this Nordic continuum of eldercare, since they rely on either extensive home care services and sheltered housing or both. In contrast, Finland and Sweden constitute the other extreme with a smaller proportion of both home care services and eldercare for the dependant ageing within the sheltered housing.