A nursing home group in Gouda is making at least four hours of help by friends and family members a ‘moral requirement’, Trouw reports on Monday.

The Vierstroom group, which operates 16 care and nursing homes in and around Gouda, is giving family and friends the ‘urgent advice’ to spend at least four hours a month on helping out residents.

The families of 18 new residents at three different locations were told they should contribute by taking residents for walks, serving coffee, playing games and cooking, Trouw says.

Positive

Fifteen of the families responded positively, two had their doubts and one son decided to place his mother in a different home, the paper says.

The experiment also had a positive effect on residents, the organisation says. ‘It is very clear that most people don’t have a problem if we say that it is considered normal to volunteer for four hours,’ manager Jeroen van den Oever told the paper.

Formal care is still provided by trained professionals but friends and family can provide the icing on the cake, he said.

The government also wants friends and family to play a far greater role in helping the elderly remain living in their own homes.