The elderly in Aarhus are free to choose between private and public services when they need help with cleaning, personal care and cooking.

Most of them do, however, choose the public services, which in Aarhus are renowned for their high quality, in particular the facilities in the local residential and activity centres as well as the standard of housing.


Learn about elderly care in Aarhus: 

The 37 local centres run by the City of Aarhus constitute a single point of access to all municipal services for elderly citizens. 

All the local centres offer a wide range of services, both for elderly citizens who require no or little care and for those requiring a lot. The services include care, cleaning, food and exercise as well as social activities.
The needs of each elderly person are assessed by an independent referral coordinator, and the local centres then provide the assistance. This is the so-called ‘order/executor model’.

The elderly person or his or her close relatives can contact the referral coordinator themselves. The Aarhus City Council decides on the minimum standards for public services for the elderly.

For a number of services, the elderly can choose between private and public sector services. Accounting for about 10 per cent of the work, cleaning is an area in which there are many private sector providers.

Irrespective of whether the citizen opts for a private or public sector provider, the municipality will pay for the service to which the citizen is entitled following the assessment made by the referral coordinator.

There are 400 associations in Aarhus which organise events for the elderly – card clubs, dancing, lectures etc.

The City of Aarhus assists the associations by providing information about their services and by providing premises and funding.
Many different committees and councils ensure that the elderly can voice their opinions on municipal matters.

The Senior Citizens’ Council enjoys a right of consultation within many areas, and, in addition, there are user panels at the local centres, panels for relatives of residents and a complaints board.

The Aarhus model for citizen involvement represents a strong tradition for dialogue with citizens.

New technology is paving the way for intelligent housing, enabling citizens to remain in their own homes using technological aids.

In future, intelligent housing for the elderly will be a development project in the City of Aarhus.

Center for Assisted Living Technology

At CFT, we test the latest assisted living technologies and implement the technologies with large-scale potential.

Read more about Center for Assisted Living Technology