Checkout time off of caring relatives

Many family caregivers take no time off despite high load

06/19/2013

Around 1.2 million people in Germany care for their relatives at home. But only a few of them treat themselves to a break or a holiday. The Foundation Center for Quality in Nursing (ZQP), which recently published a study on relief care, points this out. According to this, nearly 60 percent of full-time nurses suffer from exhaustion. Often the relaxing holiday fails because the relatives do not know how care can be taken during this time.

Time-out usually fails because of the organization of the care
Despite the constant overstrain, in which many caring relatives suffer, treat themselves to the least recovery periods. „Only about one in four caregivers relies on discharge offers at all“, reports Ralf Suhr, CEO of ZQP. Above all, people who have to reconcile work and care are often close to their limits. The fact that the long-term burden, which often extends over several years, is at the expense of health, is experienced by many caregiving relatives on their own. For example, more than half suffer from muscle tension, and every fifth suffer from depressive symptoms, explains Suhr. According to the ZQP study, 60 percent of full-time employees caring for relatives suffer from exhaustion. Among the part-time employees, almost every second person is affected.

Nursing relatives usually do not or rarely take time out because they do not know how to organize care during this time. The ZQP advises those affected to seek care advice. There, relatives were given information about the topic of care independently and free of charge. For example, many do not know that caregivers can apply to take care of their relatives at the Nursing Fund for a maximum of 28 days per calendar year.

Nursing Fund reimburses costs for time off of caring relatives
Nursing counseling helps caregivers find the right solution for their individual situation. For example, the so-called preventive care can be a way to provide care recipients for a short time by a trusted substitute at home. For example, other relatives or friends may be considered but also an outpatient nursing service or a nursing home. This model has the advantage that the patient does not have to adapt to a new environment and continues to be cared for by people he knows. Preventive care can be requested from the Nursing Fund for up to 28 days. The care fund reimburses for this as well as in the short-term care a maximum of 1,550 euros per year.

The so-called short-term care is another model, which is usually offered by nursing homes and takes a maximum of four weeks. This can be, for example, after a hospital stay in question. Above all, the prerequisite for granting a short-term care is that the person in need of care must have a nursing degree. If insured persons are significantly restricted in their everyday lives, they can also be considered for people without care. As the ZQP reports, in addition to preventive and short-term care, there are also more and more holiday offers that people in need of care can use together with their caregivers. (Ag)

Picture: Gabi Eder