[Housing and health: providing special aids to geriatric patients (rehabilitation in relation to section 46 BSHG)].
The age structure of the population is undergoing dramatic changes resulting in a steady increase in the number of geriatric patients requiring special care. In 2000 A.D. about one quarter of the inhabitants of North Rhine Westphalia will be over 60 years of age. In our Geriatric Advisory Service bureau the number of patients over 60 years of age has been rising steadily in recent years and is at present about 49.5% of a total of 2,069 patients who in 1990 are being looked after by our Advisory Office for the Elderly, the Sick and the Physically Handicapped in the North Rhine Westphalian capital city of Düsseldorf. One of the fundamental principles of our work is to check on the required measures of social rehabilitation in consultation with the physicians, physiotherapists, ergotherapists and the hospital social welfare service, so that the patient can be looked after at home without any break directly after his discharge from hospital. All the necessary auxiliaries such as handles fixed to the bath-room wall above the bathtub, bathtub seat, toilet chair etc. should be available when the patient moves into his or her home. This supply of auxiliary devices is very important because otherwise it will often not be possible to realize other tasks of social rehabilitation. For example, the patient can often not be provided at short notice with a flat that will be convenient for his disability, which means that fitting the auxiliary devices is the only way out of the problem to adapt the existing flat to his needs.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Gesundheitsamt Düsseldorf, Beratungsstelle für Alte, Kranke und körperlich Behinderte.
D000368:Aged; D016330:Frail Elderly; D005858:Germany; D006299:Health Services for the Aged / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D012656:Self-Help Devices
Wohnen und Gesundheit: Hilfsmittelversorgung für geriatrische Patienten (Rehabilitation im Sinne section 46 BSHG).