Suddenly in need of care: And now?

Day X has come: Mother, father or partner can no longer cope alone. Support is needed - and quickly. In order to quickly get your everyday life back on track, it can help if you draw up a small checklist. This way you won't forget which offices you should definitely call, which deadlines need to be observed and whether you need to have special documents ready. In addition, you can free up the time you need for organising. The law gives you a few options for this. In addition, you are giving away money if you wait too long to apply for a care degree. Because with a care degree, your relative is entitled to benefits from the care insurance fund. From care level 2, they are entitled to care allowance and/or care benefits in kind, which are provided by an outpatient care service, for example. If, for example, only temporary care is needed after a stay in hospital, home nursing care in the sense of hospital avoidance care [1] is called for. This is also possible without classification into a care degree.

Even if the situation is very emotional and stressful, a lot needs to be thought about and events are happening all the time - the grass doesn't grow any faster just because you pull on it. Take the time to stop for a moment and make a list. Write down when you will call whom, the telephone number - and in short words what you would like to clarify with them.

Make a note of the limitations of your relative and think directly about what you can and want to do yourself in the future - and what you don't want to do. If you are clear about what external help is needed, you can make more targeted calls to care insurance companies, counselling centres and service providers and ask more specific questions.

You basically want to care for your relative at home or have them cared for - but after the unexpected stroke or the sudden deterioration of their health condition, you can't manage to organise everything ad hoc? If you need some breathing space, short-term care (see below) is a way of temporarily caring for your relative as an inpatient, provided he or she has already been certified as having at least care level 2 in hospital. Especially if everything has to be turned around at home without any warning after such a hospital stay, this temporary inpatient accommodation gives you some breathing space. If you want to take over the care yourself in the future, you can also take time off. This can be done by means of preventive care (see below).

Doctor's reports, discharge letters from the hospital, disability certificate - you should have everything at hand that has something to do with the need for care and a possible course of illness of your relative. It makes sense to telephone the family doctor in charge. However, your relative must also agree to you talking to the doctor. This will help you to speed up the process of being assigned a care level (EINSTUFUNG INEINEN PFLEGEGRAD). The employee of the Medical Service of the Health Insurance (MDK) gets a quick overview and you do not have to submit anything later.

Find out what costs you or your relative might have to pay in your particular case and how much money you can expect from the long-term care insurance fund. So that you do not have to spend sleepless nights, it is best to get help from experts. Advice on this is also available at the care support centres. They can also give you tips on special subsidies - for example, for age-appropriate renovations. You can get an initial overview of the benefits your relative is entitled to from the long-term care insurance fund using the long-term care benefits helper [3].

Do you have to make preparations at home before your relative can be adequately accommodated in his or her own four walls after a stay in hospital? Do you need to take a break from caring for your loved one later on? Are you temporarily out of action yourself because you are ill? Or then you can make use of preventive or short-term care - or combine both. Short-term care is generally provided in an inpatient care facility, while preventive care can be provided at home. However, because the conditions are different and the duration is limited in each case, it is worth taking a closer look at the entitlement. The prerequisite is that you have already been caring for your relative for at least six months. With care degree 1, you can only use the relief amount.

The bottom line is that it depends on what exactly you do for your loved one every day - and whether everything you do is absolutely necessary. If you mean well, you may be doing much more than is really needed. Therefore, you should be clear about which activities really have to be done during your absence and which things can be left out for a while or done less frequently. To put it bluntly: Your relative should of course be properly dressed and physically well-groomed, he should eat and drink properly and not be lonely. But do you really have to wet the hallway every day? Or whether the window sills should be dusted every two days while you are away?