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Dr. Johanna Fischer researches "care leave" in Germany and in the EU

In Germany, relatives who provide informal care for their relatives can apply for long-term care leave. In her new postdoc project, Dr. Johanna Fischer (Department of Health, Long-Term Care and Pensions) examines the respective policies in EU countries and especially in Germany and Austria.

Long-term care for older persons faces a variety of problems – not only in Germany. The number of people in need of care will continue to rise in the coming years, while there is a shortage of care workers and places in nursing homes are becoming increasingly scarce. Home care therefore plays an important role, both now and in the future. Informal caregivers, mostly female family members, often face the issue of combining paid work and care.

To counter this problem, many welfare states have established care leave, which constitutes an increasingly popular policy measure for supporting work-care conciliation. However, care leave policies are very heterogenous, for instance as regards target group, duration and payment. In her project "Work-care conciliation policies for informal elder care: Comparing the generosity of long-term care leave schemes in Europe," Dr. Johanna Fischer will look at the different policies in a European comparison. The project is funded by the Central Research Development Fund of the University of Bremen for three years starting in March 2025.

 

In her project, she first surveys the design of such care leave in all 27 EU states, before then explaining the differences between the countries. Afterwards, she examines the introduction of care leave policies in Germany and Austria in two qualitative case studies qualitative comparative analysis. The focus of the latter is on the political factors and debates that accompanied the introduction of the legislation.

Dr. Johanna Fischer is a political scientist and received her doctorate in 2021 from the University of Bremen on the emergence of social policies for long-term care in a global comparison. Since 2022, she has been a member of the project "Global Dynamics of Long-Term Care Policies" of the Collaborative Research Centre "Global Dynamics of Social Policy". With the funding line "Independent Projects for Postdocs", the Central Research Development Fund of the University of Bremen supports postdocs in the development of their research profiles and their scientific careers.

 

Text: Maren Emde / University of Bremen

Photo: University of Bremen / Patrick Pollmeier

Contact:
Dr. Johanna Fischer
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-57074
E-Mail: johanna.fischer@uni-bremen.de

Health and Long-Term Care Economist Appointed for Another Term of Office

Prof. Heinz Rothgang, Head of the Department of Health, Long-Term Care and Pensions, has been appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of the "Scientific Institute of the AOK" (Wissenschaftliches Institut der AOK, WIdO) for another term of office.

The WIdO carries out research for the AOK, aiming to improve the quality of the healthcare system and to make it more efficient. The Scientific Advisory Board advises and supports these tasks by contributing their scientific expertise and experience.

Heinz Rothgang has been a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the WIdO since 2009. Scientific advice such as this is one of the department's important transfer activities.

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Heinz Rothgang
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58557
E-Mail: rothgang@uni-bremen.de

“Future of Care” Cluster enters the next round

To improve long-term care using digital solutions while at the same time reducing the workload for carers – that is the aim of the research cluster “Future of Care”, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The main focus of the second funding phase, which has now commenced, is the transfer of new technologies into practice. An important building block for this is the Nursing Care Innovation Center (Pflegeinnovationszentrum, or PIZ) in Oldenburg and Bremen.

Today, long-term care in Germany is confronted with immense challenges, including a rapidly growing number of people in need of care and a glaring shortage of qualified carers. At the same time, care interventions are becoming increasingly complex. In order to tackle these issues, the Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the development and probing of new care technologies.

Since 2017, the “Future of Care” cluster has synergized social and technological innovations; researchers, businesses and stakeholders in the field co-operated with users and worked on developing new products to facilitate and improve routine long-term care work in Germany. As a first measure, the Care Cluster commenced its operations in 2017 at the Nursing Care Innovation Center – a hitherto unique institution in Germany. Here, engineers from OFFIS in Oldenburg explore new technologies in collaboration with nursing-care researchers (headed by Prof. Dr.  Karin Wolf-Ostermann, Institute for Public Health and Nursing Research), and long-term care economists (headed by Prof. Dr. Heinz Rothgang, SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy) at the University of Bremen. Ethical, social and legal aspects are also a key factor in this context, and are investigated at the University of Oldenburg.

After the successful first phase, the research work is now entering phase two, which entails the development of an “innovation and transfer hub”. While in the first phase the focus lay on the development and trial of new technologies, the second phase comprises the transfer and establishment of these technologies into broad practice. They include, for example, robotic systems to reduce fatigue in carers caused by physically demanding work, or technologies to support telecare provision, e.g. assessing a person’s health status using sensor technology.

The University of Bremen contributes with the participation of comprehensive expertise in nursing and care research, long-term care economics and healthcare research, with a particular focus on digital care technologies. “Technological innovations can take the load off routine carework, but they must be implemented sensibly in practical care provision and integrated into the work of carers,” says Professor Dr. Karin Wolf-Ostermann. The Bremen scientists analyse for instance the requirements for technological support in various inpatient and outpatient care situations, explore how technological innovations such as smart watches and other “wearables” can be integrated into everyday care, and address issues relating to the evaluation of technology deployment. “With our experience, our high profile research areas and our networks we can mediate between the requirements and demands in practical care, the interests of developers, and science,” Prof. Dr. Heinz Rothgang explains.

Taken together, the “Future of Care” cluster will be funded to the tune of around 20 million euros in the coming five years. Apart from PIZ, four so-called nursing practice centres (Pflegepraxiszentren, or PPZ) in Berlin, Freiburg, Hanover and Nuremberg will play a major role in the implementation and evaluation of technologies and products.

 

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Heinz Rothgang
SOCIUM Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy
Mary-Somerville-Straße 3
28359 Bremen
Phone: +49 421 218-58557
E-Mail: rothgang@uni-bremen.de