Caring for family carers effectively

Caring for family carers effectively

14/02/2011

„The Volkssolidarität welcomes the conversation of the Federal Minister of Health with associations for the care of relatives“, said the President of the Social and Welfare Association of People's Solidarity, Prof. Dr. med. Gunnar Winkler, on Monday. „Improvements to caregivers are urgently needed. They need help and support and must not be made a stopgap for deficits in long-term care insurance. We expect impulses from such conversations to make it easier to cultivate people in their own home. This includes involving people in long-term care insurance, who receive no or only limited benefits because of too narrow a behavior-related concept of care. B. Dementia patient.“

Winkler continued, "Many caregivers are highly charged and take responsibility, and this contribution to a humane society must be socially recognized and valued." Social solidarity supports nursing relatives with their professional care services, but also sees the everyday difficulties that they have to deal with. "Information and counseling before and during caring for relatives needs to be improved." More relief is needed - in day and night care, but also low-threshold care services, adequate and affordable home care services and mobility aids and caring for family caregivers, especially as many are already close to retirement age or are retired and often have health problems themselves. "

Incidentally, popular solidarity also calls for better recognition of care benefits in pensions, the association president emphasized. Finally, it is about gradually increasing the care allowance and adjusting it in a regulated manner, appreciating the care benefits accordingly and reducing the burden of co-payments and other in-house benefits. "People's solidarity welcomes efforts to promote care by relatives with the development of residential care infrastructures, but this can not be just a task for the local community, which requires the joint responsibility of the federal, state and local governments Going beyond an overly narrow horizon of care is counterproductive, such as savings that close senior citizen meeting places, counseling centers or self-help centers, so we do not need fewer confessions, but far-sighted steps that effectively support care locally. " (Pm)

Picture: Rainer Sturm