Ældrepleje i forandring – fra pleje og omsorg til ansvarliggørelse og hjælp til selvhjælp

Since the start of the millennium, significant changes have been seen in Danish eldercare. Central is the political ambition of a paradigm shift from »help« to »help to self-self« in home care, which is envisioned to happen through reablement. Reablement refers to short-duration home-based training programmes through which applicants of publicly funded home care are sought re-enabled to manage practical housework and/or personal hygiene. This article is based on an empirical case and discusses the ethical dilemmas that arise in the practical encounter between health care professionals and older people, including professionals’ balancing of different care logics, the shift in responsibilities from welfare society to older people and their relatives, and the more general implications of changed conceptions of how ‘good eldercare’ is defined and practiced for the possibility of achieving a good late life in the modern welfare society