Home Sweet Home

25 minutes. That is how much time a home care worker has to help an old person living alone: get them up from their bed, change their diapers or colostomy bag, wash them, and warm their meal in the microwave – using the stove is forbidden. Then they must hurry to their next client.

Sofie, a single mother who is starting her career as a home care worker is quick to build warm relationships with her clients. Many of them are painfully lonely, and the nurse’s visit is their only connection to the outside world. One of them spends their time with a 3000-piece puzzle, another simply stares at the clock, a third at the television. The wife of man suffering from dementia always brews a pot of coffee in hope of a small conversation – often in vain.

The work is physically and mentally draining, gets little respect, and mistakes can have serious consequences. Pressure and feelings of quilt weigh Sofie down, but at the same time the work feels meaningful. The situation is starting to negatively impact her relationship with her 10-year-old daughter, who is recouping after her parents’ divorce, and whose gymnastics group Sofie coaches. The authenticity of the story is added to by amateur actors from the village of Tønder in Jylland. Where to draw the lines of empathy, and how to help when resources are scarce?

This theme touches all of us in Finland as well, as the demand for home care is rising while resources allocated to it are being cut. Who will talk with you when you are old, or make you porridge when you are no longer able to?

Anna-Sofia Joro (translated by Herman Tikkanen)