Head of Social Affairs Heiner Pfrommer opened the symposium with his welcome address. The PflegeFrei model project was funded from October 2019 to March 2023 as part of the Baden-Württemberg state care innovation program and focused on plannable time off for family caregivers.
In his video message, Manne Lucha, State Minister for Social Affairs, Health and Integration, thanked the district of Ludwigsburg for its initiative and gave an insight into the current situation of short-term care. The "Short-term care in the home" symposium focused on the development of sustainable relief structures for family caregivers. Silke Reich, Head of the District Office's Senior Citizens' Work and Care Department, moderated the event.
A total of 83 percent of people in need of care in Baden-Württemberg are looked after by family members, friends or neighbors in their own homes. It is important that carers also think about their own time off. The model project PflegeFrei (CareFree) showed ways that can support the development of domestic substitute networks for plannable time off. In addition to providing advice for family caregivers, it is important to support interested citizens in contributing their own qualities to these networks. In order to raise awareness of the shared responsibility for care, open discussion and meeting opportunities from various stakeholders are necessary. Prof. Dr. Annette Franke from the Protestant University of Applied Sciences Ludwigsburg, who provided scientific support for the model project, also pointed out the challenges associated with taking on care and nursing responsibilities. The family carers are under great psychosocial strain.
The town of Kornwestheim was a trial area for the model project in the last six months of the project. Kadir Koyutürk, Staff Unit Social Affairs and Participation, and Siegfried Dannwolf, Chairman of the Kornwestheim Senior Citizens' Council, reported on their positive experiences with the neighbourhood work and emphasized the importance of further developing municipal networking and care structures.
Prof. Dr. Cornelia Kricheldorff from Freiburg also emphasized that lively neighbourhoods can be an important building block for stabilizing the home care setting. Family caregivers need time out in order to remain healthy themselves. Her presentation highlighted the growing importance and possible forms of respite services.
The afternoon of the symposium focused on digitalization. Dr. Tobias Wörle from the Bavarian research center "Pflege Digital" made it clear that great hopes are being placed on caring communities of neighbors, volunteers and professionals to support family caregivers. However, in order to effectively relieve the burden on relatives, these care communities themselves need support - including in digital form. According to Wörle, this can only be done step by step in order to experience added value and relief factors. The presentation provided insights into the participatory research and development project KoordinAID and presented initial solutions from a rural region. Thomas Heine from Landeskompetenzzentrum Pflege & Digitalisierung Baden-Württemberg provided information on the possibilities of digital technology to support both people with care needs and their carers.
The symposium also offered participants the opportunity to talk to the speakers and each other. Many ideas for the further development of "short-term care in the home" were presented and discussed.
