Can You Die from Vulnerability? Reflections from the People’s Meeting 2025
At the People’s Meeting (Folkemødet) 2025, we posed a powerful question to both experts and citizens: Can you die from vulnerability?
The unanimous answer—from our panel and the audience—was yes.
In a well-attended debate, we explored how vulnerability is experienced in older age. Alongside the debate, we conducted a short survey with nearly 100 responses from people of all ages. Both the debate and survey showed that vulnerability in older age is complex and deeply personal—and that how the healthcare system encounters it can either support dignity or reinforce inequality. Some key pointers for feeling vulnerable was the the loss of work identity, loneliness, reduced mobility, and cognitive decline.
The panel brought together a wide range of perspectives from research, civil society, politics, and practice:
- Dorthe Susanne Nielsen
- Christine E. Swane
- Dorthe Boe Danbjørg
- Camilla Hove Lund
- Annette Wandel
- Mirjana Saabye
- Asim Latif
- Moderator: Mickael Bech
These insights mark the beginning of our citizen science project Empowering Older Adults, led by Dorthe Susanne Nielsen. With support from the IMPETUS for citizen science programme, we will work with older citizens to explore what vulnerability means in everyday life—and how it can be better understood and addressed in healthcare.
This is only the start of the conversation. Stay tuned.