Strengthening family caregivers

Prof. Dr. Andreas Hoff, Director of the "Health, Ageing, Work, Technology" (GAT) research institute and head of the part-time Master's degree course in Social Gerontology, gave a keynote speech at the 18th Women's Policy Conference of the German Civil Service Association dbb in Berlin on 16 April 2024 entitled "VorSORGE: Ways to sustainability in care in demographic change".

The main aim of the conference entitled "Family, care work, poverty in old age - the CARE side of the coin ", which attracted more than 200 participants, was to comprehensively communicate the connection between unpaid care work in the course of life (raising children, caring for the elderly) and poverty in old age, which affects women more often than average. In addition to evidence-based analysis, the focus was on possible solutions in the world of work and politics. Prof. Hoff suggested - not least in his role as deputy chairman of the independent advisory board for the reconciliation of care and work - that the resilience of family caregivers should be strengthened through the following measures:

1. Recognizing care work as a responsibility of society as a whole, which includes a comprehensive range of support structures close to home for family caregivers, such as day care facilities.
    
2. A fairer distribution of care work between women and men, which makes it possible for both genders to combine care work and a career.
    
3. Understanding the successful reconciliation of care and work as a measure to secure skilled workers and thus as an opportunity for companies.
    
4. De-bureaucratization of application procedures for the granting of care support services.
    
5. Forward-looking, preventative support for family caregivers (time off, health cures, counseling, preventative courses, preventative medical treatment)

Research into these issues is one of the core competencies of the GAT Institute. Teaching the fundamentals of social inequality in the life course, socio-political logics and structures, as well as measures to combat poverty in old age and the unfair distribution of care work are also among the focal points of the part-time Social Gerontology course.