Senior assistance, neighbourhood help and robots
In the future, there will be more and more older people. Seniors in need of care need help and affordable care, but active seniors also have special needs. One scenario: senior assistants offer company as a payable service for seniors. Robots take care of the rest.
Statistics show that in 15 years, every third German will be over 60 years old. This demographic "problem" is to be solved by a new occupational group, the senior assistance. They are supposed to fill the gap that is not being served by the health insurance funds and other institutions. Senior assistants, also called senior companions, take care of what you need help with in old age because it is more difficult than it used to be. They support you in making your life easier, so that it simply becomes more beautiful and worth living. Not having to do everything yourself in old age gives you valuable time and energy. Simply throw the old doctrines of diligence, effort and the harshness of life overboard. Life can now be wonderful and easy.
Active seniors often shy away from asking for help because they don't want to appear so old and frail as to need it and believe that life is hard. If they just manage to ask a relative or neighbour to bring them heavy drinks, they would never ask that neighbour or relative for help with cooking, dressing, laundry or household help. Many have the impression that they would then be a care case and therefore avoid appearing like one in the slightest. They prefer to muddle along on their own and sometimes become more and more lonely in the process, unnoticed. It is well known that loneliness is a painful and distressing experience. However, it is alarming that loneliness is worse for seniors than knee pain, back problems or dry skin. A senior companion prevents social withdrawal and loneliness.
What distinguishes a professional senior companion from one without training?
Anyone can work as a senior citizen assistant. You will find numerous offers in the newspaper and will certainly receive a variety of responses if you formulate an advertisement yourself in which you are looking for companionship or company. This is certainly a good way to go if you are fit and awake and would like to have someone from the neighbourhood come to your house by the hour who you like as a person, who can support you and with whom you would like to spend your golden years.
If this doesn't seem safe enough and you would rather rely on the good pre-selection of specialists, you should ask for a trained assistant. There are agencies for this on the Internet, such as Seniorenassistenten [1]. They make sure that the senior assistants are trained in the following areas:
● practical senior assistance
● psychology
● leisure activities
● independence
● legal issues/care/health
A suggestion to copy from Japan: Neighbourhood service for seniors
In Japan, as in Germany, one in three people will soon be over 60. The economy has already adjusted to this and the Japanese government is working at full speed on new solutions. An interesting alternative model [2] has emerged as a service for senior citizens. In this country, it would be particularly interesting for the group of people who are poor in age and cannot afford a senior citizen assistant. According to statistics [3], this group is constantly growing in Germany and it is questionable whether the planned minimum pension will change anything. Many people cannot prove they have 30 years of salaried work and thus will not even receive the minimum rate of the minimum pension.
The alternative model works with time credits. It is based on the Fureai Kippu Model developed in the 1970s: people from the neighbourhood help older people with care and housework to an extent that is agreeable and pleasant for them, and receive points in return that they can redeem themselves in old age. This approach is also so interesting and worthy of imitation because help and support is possible here beyond the established monetary structures. In Germany, there is no time credit model yet. In terms of neighbourhood commitment, however, there is the offer of the online portal Pflegix [4].
How exactly do the services for seniors against time credits work?
The senior supporters help on site and collect points in return for the hours worked. Generally, it is young people who provide for their care in old age in this way, but in some circumstances fit seniors can also help other seniors. The accumulated time credits of the senior citizen helpers can also be passed on to relatives in need of care. This is helpful, for example, if relatives in need of care do not live nearby and do not have any time credits or assets.
assets. In this way, they can be cared for by someone in the immediate neighbourhood in spite of everything.
The senior helpers are usually not professional carers. Therefore, they only provide very basic services such as cleaning, gardening and companionship/counselling for seniors. These time credits are run by public municipalities in Japan and belong to a non-profit network called Nippon Active Life Club. As an alternative to remuneration in the form of time credits, money can also be paid out, if necessary, which comes from membership fees. The club currently has about 10,000 members and 124 offices nationwide.
Care robots - the new household helpers for seniors
Basically, all industrialised countries are facing the challenge of how the few young people are to care for and finance the many old people. Another idea that is already being implemented in Japan, but could also be useful for Germany, is the use of care robots as assistants for the elderly.
Robot technology is already commonplace in many old people's and nursing homes in Japan. There are walking and standing assistants, for example. They also relieve the staff when lifting bedridden patients. There are mobility aids to mobilise the elderly, self-propelled wheelchairs, tidying and cleaning aids and even animated stuffed animal robots to cuddle.
"Pepper" is a humanoid robot that is about 1.20 m tall and can recognise different moods and facial expressions. It provides entertainment and thus also serves as a mood enhancer without psychotropic drugs. A similar-looking robot named Robby even leads Thai Chi classes and encourages a special sit-down dance for senior citizens. Yes, Robby can actually dance, he also answers questions and can even sing. For most Japanese seniors, it is fun to learn funny movement games for seniors from a humanoid robot. In Germany, people are still rather sceptical about this.
