Stockholm City's Elderly Care and COVID19: Interview with Barbro Karlsson

Abstract

Upwards of 70 percent of the COVID-19 death toll in Sweden has been people in elderly care services (as of mid-May 2020). We summarize the COVID-19 tragedy in elderly care in Sweden, particularly in the City of Stockholm. We explain the institutional structure of elderly care administration and service provision. Those who died of COVID-19 in Stockholm’s nursing homes had a life-remaining median somewhere in the range of 5 to 9 months. Having contextualized the COVID-19 problem in City of Stockholm, we present an interview of Barbro Karlsson, who works at the administrative heart of the Stockholm elderly care system. Her institutional knowledge and sentiment offer great insight into the concrete problems and challenges. There are really two sides to the elderly care COVID-19 challenge: The vulnerability and frailty of those in nursing homes and the problem of nosocomial infection — that is, infection caused by contact with others involved in the elderly care experience. The problem calls for targeted solutions by those close to the vulnerable individuals.

Keywords: COVID-19, Sweden, Stockholm, elderly care, nursing homes, nosocomial

JEL Classification: I18, I38, H4