Self-activeness and the need for help in domiciliary care

The data in this paper are based on interviews of domiciliary care patients in Helsinki, Finland. The aim of the study was to compare self-active patients' (65) and non-self-active patients' (61) need for help and the help they received. The findings demonstrated that patients who had, to some extent, a 'better' background, received support from their relatives, assessed themselves as physically and especially mentally healthier and were socially stronger, were also more often self-active than patients, who had a 'poorer' background, received little support and felt more ill. The non-self-active patients received help with some physical activities more often but not with mental and social problems. The self-active patients co-operated better with the care providers and considered the quality of care to be higher than did the non-self-active patients.