Preventive home visits among elderly people.

Recurrent preventive home visits are an important part of the efforts for elderly people in about 15% of the communities in Denmark. Based on these experiences, this paper describes how to conduct the preventive visits. The content consists of structured conversations, attention to possible risk situations, action proposals and followup on previous discussions and planned changes. The empathy of the visitor is an important factor. A hypothesis is proposed about the cause of the positive effect of the preventive visits on institutionalisation and mortality.