Caring Community Cologne - Obstacles and facilitating factors in the implementation of a care network to improve care and support in the last phase of life
Concern about the process of ageing, care in advanced age as well as the last phase of life are present in public discourse, but despite their existential existence, they are considered a private issue. To address this issue, a social participation format is increasingly coming to the fore - that of caring communities, with which the sensitive and often taboo topics can be integrated into an open and caring space.
In Cologne, there is a political will to introduce a participatory round table, moderated by the Health Department of the City of Cologne and the Palliative and Hospice Network Cologne. This round table is to build up an integrating care network with the involvement of politics, civil society and actors of the health and social system and is to be understood as a permanent forum. Existing offers and possibilities of help are to be bundled and analysed, existing experiences are to be reported and consequences for improvements are to be discussed together, and new ideas and initiatives are to be developed. However, this joint care arrangement can only succeed if the social organisations and stakeholders develop a sense of responsibility and self-commitment for the topic of the "last phase of life".
Ms. Valerius' dissertation project uses qualitative research methods to investigate which prerequisites and framework conditions are necessary to implement a caring community (under the conditions of the COVID 19 pandemic) in practice:
If the project of a sustainable implementation of the Caring Community succeeds, Cologne will be the first major city in Europe to offer comprehensive needs-oriented support at the end of life and thus well-being into old age for its citizens.