Applying for 24-hour care

If your health and functional capacity declines to the point that you can no longer live at home with the support of home care or other services arranged at home, you can apply for a 24-hour place of care.

On this page

Beginning the application process

If you have a designated worker at the city’s services for seniors, please inform them that you would like to get service needs assessment for round-the-clock care and housing. If not, get in touch with Senior Info, they will help you with the application process.

Call Senior Info tel +358 9 310 44556

Senior Info is open on weekdays from 9.00–15.00. You can also send them en email or visit their office. The contacts you will find on their website. 

Find more contacts for Senior Info here

The basis for granting 24-hour care and housing

The criteria for granting 24-hour care and housing are the same for all city residents. The decision is always based on an individual and comprehensive service needs assessment. We use the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI), a tool that measures health and functional capacity, as the basis for assessment, supplemented by evaluations provided by the attending physician. The criteria for granting 24-hour care and housing include:

  • The client has significant assistance needs in daily activities such as dressing, bathing, and medication management, and a high or very high service need level.
  • The client's functional capacity is significantly reduced due to physical, psychological, or cognitive reasons, necessitating 24-hour care and attention.
  • The client's safety is repeatedly compromised, for example, due to wandering, hazardous situations, or mistreatment.
  • The client experiences recurrent, acute, short-term episodes, hospital stays, and has ongoing care needs associated with them.
  • The client exhibits challenging somatic or psychiatric symptoms such as severe malnutrition, anxiety, depression, delusions, strong treatment resistance, or behaviour that severely disrupts the environment.
  • The caregiver's well-being cannot be supported through services that facilitate living at home.

24-hour care is provided in Helsinki through both 24-hour service housing and long-term institutional housing. Long-term institutional care is only offered to clients for whom medical reasons justify institutional care or when it is otherwise justified for the client's dignified life and safe care.

Application process

  1. We assess your situation

    We’ll work with you and your loved ones to see if there’s anything we can do to support the option of you living in your own home. 

    Together, we will consider your need for care and treatment, your health and functional capacity, as well as the services you already have at your disposal and possible additional services. This phase is referred to as a comprehensive service needs assessment.
     

  2. Application begins

    If your service needs assessment determines that you need a place in 24-hour care, we will start the application process together with you. Relatives cannot act as applicants.

    The home care team assigned to you can also start the application process for a place in 24-hour care if the team is worried about how you can manage at home.

    A client guidance employee will meet with you and, if necessary, your loved ones in your own home so that they can get an overview of your situation. The employee will collect supplemental statements from your doctor and the team assigned to you.

    We will also need information about your income and property for the ARA assessment that is performed of all applicants.

  3. We process your application 

    Based on the service needs assessment, we will decide what type of support would suit you best.

    We process all applications submitted by clients, even if the service needs assessment has determined that the requirements for granting a place in 24-hour care are not met.

  4. You receive a decision on your application

    You receive a written decision regarding your application.

    It may be possible to continue independent living with the help of rehabilitation or by enhancing or increasing the services provided to you in your home.

    If the decision is to grant you 24-hour care, we will start the process of arranging a suitable place for you. We will enquire about your wishes regarding the care location and will consider them as possible. 

    You will be given a place in 24-hour care within three months of the decision.

Explore the topic

Options for 24-hour care
If your functional capacity declines to the point that you can no longer live at home with the support of home care or other services arranged at home, you can apply for 24-hour care.
Waiting times and client satisfaction
The time within which you must get access to non-urgent care and treatment is laid down in law. Measuring client experience provides us with information on the functionality of our services.
Purchased services and service providers
The Purchased Services for the Elderly Unit puts social services for Helsinki residents out to tender and purchases them from private service providers.