New book chapter "Care and Support of Older People in Times of Covid 19 - National and Communal Perspectives"
The book chapter by Martina Brandt, Claudius Garten, Miriam Grates, Nekehia T. Quashie, Gerd Naegele und Monika Reichert highlights the changes in care and support for older people in Germany against the background of the pandemic. It is part of the book "Aging and Care as a Communal Task - German and Japanese Approaches and Experiences" (eds. Franz Waldenberger, Gerd Naegele, Hiroko Kudu and Tomoo Matsuda) and is a result of a German-Japanese cooperation. The book is also available in a Japanese translation.
The book chapter shows that older people are at higher risk of severe illness or death during the Covid 19 pandemic. Therefore, they are considered as a group to be particularly protected in pandemic countermeasures and are highly affected by contact restrictions. At the same time, older people already had a higher need for support before the pandemic, and this need increased during the pandemic, as many everyday activities are associated with a higher risk of infection. The results of the study show that informal social support services have changed in many cases during the first Covid-19 wave and that caregivers as well as people with chronic diseases, with care needs and/or very old age are to be classified as particularly affected groups.