Police to keep assisting fallen seniors outside working hours
The Ministry of the Interior has changed its initial decision, under which police officers would no longer have to go help elderly people who have fallen at home, leaving this to ambulance crews and social workers, and has now announced that it will temporarily continue providing this assistance outside working hours.
The Ministry of the Interior's decision to stop providing this service came as a surprise to local governments and the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Starting 1 September, elderly people who have fallen at home must be helped by ambulance crews and social workers from local governments. Both the Ministry of Social Affairs and local governments say they are unable to fulfill the obligation set by the Ministry of the Interior.
Excessive workload and lack of resources are among the reasons why such a decision was made, said Tuuli Räim, deputy secretary general of the Ministry of the Interior.
"Police resources are limited. If the police deal with responding to calls for social assistance, it may happen that somewhere else, where they definitely need to be, it becomes harder for them to reach. There are two issues. One is the competence to assess a person's health condition. The other is that we do not consider it appropriate that an armed police patrol is by default the first responding resource. That is why we have made these decisions," the deputy secretary general said.
Räim emphasized that a solution must be found to the problem. She added that since this concerns the social field, the primary responsibility lies with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Regional Affairs in cooperation with the Association of Cities and Municipalities. The Ministry of the Interior sees itself rather as a partner, Räim noted.
The fact remains, however, that local governments are not yet able to take on the entire workload. According to Veikko Luhalaid, head of the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities, concerns include the protection of personal and health data, the inability to keep social workers on call around the clock in all municipalities, and their lack of authority to break open a home's door.
The role of local governments would primarily be to prevent falls. The analysis showed that nearly 40 percent of falls were repeat cases — meaning police had gone several times to the same home to help the same person up.
The Ministry of the Interior is now offering temporary relief: "During working hours — Monday to Friday from nine to five — assistance is organized by the local government. Outside working hours, national emergency resources will continue responding for now, whether ambulance, police or rescue services," Räim said.
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Editor: Mait Ots, Argo Ideon
