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„Thinking About Nursing Home Care Early"

Focus: Living

„Thinking About Nursing Home Care Early"

01.08.2007

Getting old healthily at home – this is what everyone would like. However, fate sometimes has different plans. Those who cannot be cared for at home anymore, often have to go into nursing homes. REHACARE.de asked Claus Bölicke how to avoid that a removal into a care home becomes a horror trip for people in need of care and their relatives. He is a qualified nurse and honorary member of the board in a German association for care professions.

Claus Bölicke is writing
a dissertation at the
Charité in Berlin about
quality of nursing homes
© Bölicke

REHACARE.de: Mr Bölicke, most people are afraid of moving into a care home.
Claus Bölicke: Nobody wants to be dependent – but if you live in a care home it is obvious that you do not get along on your own anymore. Care scandals running through the media enforce the antipathy. People who go into such an institution also know that the last stage of their life begins. Most of the people there die within one or two years.

REHACARE.de: When do most move into a nursing home?
Claus Bölicke: Mostly if there is no one who is able to care for them at home. Others get here only when relatives cannot care for them anymore and are exhausted themselves.

REHACARE.de: Do you think, people should get into the institution earlier?
Claus Bölicke: No - only if relatives are overstrained by care. This decision is not easy for them since they feel responsible. And often they have a bad conscience when they cannot care for their loved ones on their own.

REHACARE.de: How do people in need of care react when they have to move into a nursing home?
Claus Bölicke: I knew a woman who sat in a wheelchair and needed support. Nevertheless, she was very active and liked being in a care home since she was not alone. However, for most people it’s a sad moment. Especially, if they have to get there on short notice. Then they have to leave their own flat and can take only few things along. For some of them this is a shock.

REHACARE.de: Is such a shock avoidable?
Claus Bölicke: They and their relatives should be thinking about nursing home care early enough and consider if it might be the better place. The more they are ready for it, the easier it is.

REHACARE.de: What can care workers do?
Claus Bölicke: We pay attention that the sadness does not stay permanently. And we try to point out the good sides of the removal. For example, that a person who was alone at home is not lonely anymore. Most important is to give them time to cope with the parting and to accustom themselves.

REHACARE.de: Relatives can also help.
Claus Bölicke: It is good for the people in need of care to be visited by familiar persons. Especially for people with dementia it is hard to settle in for they can orientate themselves badly.

REHACARE.de: How do affected people find a good care home?
Claus Bölicke: They should pay attention to their personal impression and ask themselves: Does the nursing home management answer questions frankly? Which information do I get about the institution’s services? They should visit the buildings and trust their feelings. How does it smell there? Does it smell of urine? And they should dare to ask a nursing home resident how he feels.

REHACARE.de: And further?
Claus Bölicke: Then one should decide what is important for every single person. Should the institution offer many free time activities since the person is still active? Or is he already bedridden and it is more important to know how good the medical care is.

REHACARE.de