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5. "Not alone and not in a nursing home"

Initiatives from small groups of seniors. A housing experiment for seniors who want to live independently and still receive the care they need.

In Germany we have the same trend as in other European countries. Due to the improving medical care it can be expected that a continually growing number of older people will spend the life phase after the professional life and before "old age" in good health and activity.

Though more than 90% want to live in their own homes as long as possible some try new forms of housing - in order to avoid moving to an old people's home or a nursing home later on. (Stadelhofer/Ühlein/Körting, Salomon Project report).

Hereby the old people have to develop a lot of private initiative.

Example in Bielefeld-Schieldheide - a so called "Senioren Wohngemeinschaft".

The group: Six years ago a group of four ladies decided to try this form of housing. Each member has a room of her own (between 20 m² and 25 m²). All the other rooms are shared.
The costs: The costs for the private room and the heating depend on the size of the room.
In addition to that they all pay the same amount of money for food and common household expenses.

Ambulant home care service: The costs increase for members who need ambulant home care service. In Germany we have three different stages of nursing help. If a member of this group needs help at least once a day for personal hygiene, nutrition or mobility she would be in care stage

Click >>here for information about german nursing care

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