Round-the-clock care: is it possible?
Many people who are dependent on care want to remain living at home. One form of care in particular is becoming increasingly popular: employing a foreign domestic and care worker to look after the person in need of care in their own home.
Companies advertise on the Internet or in newspaper ads with slogans such as "Take advantage of a 24-hour care service in your own four walls" or "Home helpers and caregivers are there for you around the clock!"
They promise an easy solution to a difficult family situation. Many families are not able to provide comprehensive care, but they also do not want to put their relatives in need of help in a nursing home. A foreign domestic and care worker, mainly from Eastern or Southeastern Europe, is supposed to take over the 24-hour care. But the supposed all-round carefree package quickly turns out to be a sham. German labor law does not permit continuous day-and-night care by a single person. The term "24-hour care" is misleading and unrealistic.
What can and may the caregiver provide?
First of all, foreign domestic and care workers perform classic household tasks: they cook, wash, clean and go shopping. In addition, they can also take over simple everyday care assistance, i.e. help the person in need of care with eating and drinking, dressing and undressing, getting up and going to bed or climbing stairs. One important task is providing care. The caregivers read aloud, accompany on walks, and enable participation in social life by taking the person in need of care to church or to the senior citizens' circle.
However, Eastern European caregivers are generally not trained nurses and are therefore not allowed to provide medical treatment. Activities such as changing bandages or giving injections are reserved for trained nursing staff - in everyday care, outpatient nursing services take on such tasks. The care of people with advanced dementia is also so challenging that nursing professionals should definitely be involved.
.
So the care can be distributed on several shoulders
.
On June 24, 2021, the Federal Labor Court clarified in a ruling what has long been true: actual round-the-clock care cannot be provided by one person alone. Working hours, including on-call time, must not exceed an average of eight hours a day in a six-day week.
The judges had ruled that foreign caregivers receive the minimum wage applicable in Germany for their regular working hours and for additional on-call time (Az: 5 AZR 505/20). On-call time is considered to be, for example, if the caregiver has to stay near the person in need of care at night in order to help him or her go to the toilet.
The care provided by a foreign caregiver can always be only one component in the care. Relatives, neighbors, mini-jobbers or even care services must also take over tasks. Also the attendance in a day care can supplement the supply. At the latest from care level 3, an outpatient care service should be involved. Activities such as putting on and taking off compression stockings or administering insulin are part of treatment care. They can be well outsourced to the care professionals.
.
