‘I don’t generally get involved in politics as I don’t want to offend any people. And I don’t comment on things without having seen or experienced it myself’.
This is how Gustav Salinas started an Instagram post last week about the Danish nursing homes.
Gustav Salinas has visited a youth prison in Denmark, and he is shocked by how the conditions are compared to the nursing home where his recently deceased grandmother lived.
And although he generally does not comment on such subjects, he is happy to elaborate when Ekstra Bladet meets him at Silas Holst’s book reception on Monday.
According to Gustav Salinas, the youth prison had four times as many employees, free psychological help, delicious cooking and much more. All things that he did not experience in the nursing home where his grandmother lived for the last few years of her life.
– I’m super happy with the society we have, I think it’s fantastic, but sometimes I just wonder how we treat the old, versus how we treat criminal people. I think that might be good, we can think about it a bit, says Gustav Salinas to Ekstra Bladet.
It is especially his experience of the number of employees that has made an impression on Gustav Salinas, and he also thinks that we should think a little about the distribution of tax dollars.
– In youth prisons, for example, they have more employees than they have inmates. But in nursing homes, e.g. where my grandmother was, they have maybe 20 elderly people in a ward, and then there is only one nurse to look after all the old people. Maybe I think it’s a little strange how we distribute the tax dollars, says the celebrity.
A call to the Danes
Gustav Salinas also has no doubt that what he has experienced will influence how he puts his cross in the upcoming general election.
– I will probably vote differently than I just expected. I think maybe I’m going to be more towards the middle now.
– Is it also because of the nursing homes?
– Absolutely, it means a lot to me. I think we have to look after the people who have ensured that we have the society we have today, and I think we often fail the elderly, he says and continues:
– Now I myself have been very close to my grandmother, but I also often think in general that the Danes are not so good at coming out to visit the elderly. I often experienced when I was in nursing homes that many of the elderly people were just completely alone. So I was also kind of hoping that the update I made on my social media might give some food for thought so we can get out and visit the elderly people.
Gustav Salinas’ grandmother died at the end of September, after which he traveled to Chile to fulfill her last wish. Read more about it here: Gustav in deep sorrow: Travels to Chile