Your municipality should be able to provide you with information about dementia and local services available to you. If necessary, the municipality will map your functional abilities and need for assistance and ensure that you receive the necessary support and relief. Many municipalities now have dementia teams or memory teams that can support you. Smaller municipalities may have a dedicated dementia resource who is responsible for these tasks.
Talk to your GP
You should talk to your GP if you suspect that you have dementia. Being diagnosed with dementia will often make it easier both to access support and to adapt such support so that it is right for you. Your GP will often carry out the assessment in collaboration with the local memory team or similar, and they will then be able to assess your need for support and management at the same time.
A diagnosis does not in itself carry any entitlement to health and care services. It is an individual’s need for support and their ability to manage their own life and health that determine which services they will receive. If the municipality does not provide you with the services and support you believe you need, you can appeal the decision to the municipality.
Services available from the municipality
Most of the support you will receive will come from the municipality.
When you are being examined for dementia or when you have been given a diagnosis, the GP may refer you to the local memory team or dementia team (if available). You or your next of kin can also contact the team or other health and care services in the municipality to learn more about available services or request help applying for support (services).
The goal is for those who want to live at home to be able to do so for as long as possible. The municipality must facilitate service provisions that are adapted to your needs.
Services may vary between municipalities. As the disease progresses, you will generally need more support from the municipality.
Support while living at home
Relevant services while living at home may include:
- Caregiver schools and discussion groups
- Support or activity workers
- Food deliveries
- Home care or practical assistance
- Home nursing
- Daycare provisions
- Relief and short-term stays or other relief provisions
- Dental treatment from the public dental service
Welfare technology, safety and aids
The municipality should consider whether you need welfare technology and technological aids, adaptations or fire safety measures at your home. This can help you manage everyday life and may help you to live safely at home for longer. The occupational health service in the municipality can provide advice and guidance.
The municipality is responsible for organising the short-term loan of aids. Each county has a NAV aid centre, which is responsible for permanent lending of aids. The local health and care service can help you identify the right aids and submit an application for aids to the aid centre on your behalf.
Adapted living
As dementia progresses, you may require more support and supervision, which may make it difficult for you to live at home. Find out what accommodation options are available in your municipality. Examples could include:
- Care homes or shared housing that is staffed for all or parts of the day
- Nursing home, with a specially adapted unit for dementia, if applicable
Consent, information and participation
You generally have the right to make decisions relating to yourself and your life. Over time, dementia does weaken the ability to plan, make decisions and give consent. Eventually, you may lose what is referred to as the capacity to consent. Capacity to consent means that you are able to understand information, that you have an understanding of your own situation, that you are able to make choices, and are able to understand and consider the impact of your decisions.
Making your own decisions
Once you have developed dementia, it is important that you are able to help determine how you want things to be in the future from an early stage. You will be able to participate in decisions relating to finances, your will and similar.
One important decision is who will be given power of attorney over your finances and make decisions on your behalf if required. The decision about who has power of attorney is one you can make now, but it will not enter into force before it is required. This is called a future power of attorney (aldringoghelse.no).
Capacity to consent
Section 4-3 of the Norwegian Patient and User Rights Act states that consent cannot be given by an individual who is clearly unable to understand what they are consenting to. It is the person providing healthcare, such as the GP, who determines whether a patient lacks the capacity to consent.
Healthcare professionals must ensure that patients are able to consent to healthcare. If they are uncertain whether you understand what the consent entails, the general rule relating to capacity to consent will apply.
If healthcare professionals decide that you lack the capacity to consent, such a decision must be justified in writing and presented to you and your next of kin as soon as possible.
Right to information and participation
Chapter 3 of the Norwegian Patient and User Rights Act deals with the right to information and participation. You have the right to receive information that provides insight into your health condition and the content of the healthcare you receive, and to manage your own rights.
If, as a patient, you consent or the circumstances indicate this, your next of kin will receive information about your health condition and the healthcare you receive.
As a patient, you also have the right to participate in how you receive health and care services. If you do not have the capacity to consent, your next of kin will have the right to participate together with you.
The less you are able to look after yourself, the more rights your next of kin will have.
Individual plan and coordinator
If you need long-term, coordinated services under the Norwegian Health and Care Services Act, the municipality must offer you a coordinator. The coordinator will be responsible for ensuring adequate management and coordination of your health services.
An individual plan is an important tool in providing certain adapted services from multiple service providers over time. You are entitled to an individual plan if you require long-term, coordinated services.
You should be offered a coordinator even if you do not want an individual plan. It is important that everyone that provides you with services is involved in the process as early as possible. The coordinator will ensure that you are offered an individual plan.
When can healthcare professionals make decisions about healthcare?
The general rule is that individuals have the right to decide whether they want to receive healthcare. However, if certain criteria are met, healthcare professionals can still provide healthcare to adult patients who lack the capacity to consent. The rules relating to this can be found in Sections 4 and 4A of the Norwegian Patient and User Rights Act and relate, among other things, to situations where an individual is reluctant to receive healthcare, how necessary the healthcare is, and how intrusive and long-lasting it is.
The Health and Social Services Ombudsman
If you need support and information relating to rights and services or you have concerns you would like to raise, you can contact the Health and Social Services Ombudsman (pasientogbrukerombudet.no) in the county where you live. They will be able to help you formulate and submit questions or complaints to the right body.
Ministry of Health and Care Services
Norwegian patient and user rights act (lovdata.no)