Local services
In the spirit of welcoming mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, the Municipal Social Service of the City of Debrecen (abbreviated as VSzSz in Hungarian) organised its third Family Day at the Pallagi Road Old People’s Home on 8 May 2025.
More than two hundred people attended the event where the residents of the home celebrated with their family members. As the head of the social services, Lajosné Nagy mentioned in her welcoming speech, “The relatives expect the institution to organise at least one or two events a year where they can participate together with their elderly loved ones and socialise together. One such event is related to Mother’s Day, as mothers symbolise the togetherness of families and the warmth of love that they can pass on to their family members, even from here, from the institution. Moreover, not only to them!” As Lajosné Nagy said, “The employees of the institution take care of the residents with love; in return, they receive abundant love from the elderly, and thus they can even feel that several mothers from the residents are their own.” She also revealed that it is good to feel the trust that the relatives place in them, which they would like to strengthen with this family day.
In her welcoming speech, the city’s deputy mayor responsible for care policy Diána Széles emphasised that countless things in our lives are about attachment. We are attached to our mothers, our parents, and our family members. The Deputy Mayor assured everyone that the city’s social service institutions dealing with elderly care can create the conditions for the possibility of attachment between family members and the ability to recall the warmth of home to remain strong even when a relative is placed in a nursing home. This family day and similar events that provide shared experiences also serve this purpose. According to Diána Széles, Debrecen’s social institutions employ employees who work to ensure that the beneficiaries feel as good as possible, in the most loving and caring environment, and are as happy as possible. It is good to live in a city like this, in a community like this. Debrecen wants to run institutions where love and happiness are a matter of course. And we must give this love to each other every day, we must care for each other every day, and we must ask each other how they are doing every day. “If they answer that they are happy, then our lives are better too,” Diána Széles highlighted.
After the welcoming speeches, the family day continued with a joint programme by the institution’s employees and residents, a performance by young university students, and playful programmes providing shared experiences.
Source and photo credit:debrecen.hu
