Offline when moving in – Internet access in nursing homes remains an exception

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offline when moving in – internet access in nursing homes.jpg
offline when moving in – internet access in nursing homes.jpg

Internet in your own four walls is part of living for many. In old people’s and nursing homes, however, routers in one’s own room are few and far between.

Only a few seniors in Hessian nursing homes have an Internet connection in their own room. “There is no excuse for the situation to be like this in 2022,” says Dr. David Kröll from the Care Protection Association BIVA in Bonn. The carriers had neglected the WLAN expansion. And he denounces: The fact that seniors get their own devices such as tablets in the houses is the “outrageous exception”. Hessian operators have various explanations for this.

The availability of the Internet is a question of acknowledging older generations, says Nicola Röhricht from the Federal Association of Senior Citizens’ Organizations (BAGSO) in Bonn. “Digital participation is social participation.” Getting involved, getting information, but also playing games, watching films and getting pictures of the grandchildren: Seniors in a nursing home should be able to do all of this. It is unacceptable for nursing staff to have to lend residents their own mobile data and devices to talk to family. “But we hear that again and again,” she says.

Röhricht and Kröll want nationwide internet in the Hessian care facilities – ideally their own routers in the room, smartphones or tablets – and people who can show the seniors how to use the devices. Kröll complains that this is currently a lack of service.

The agency for customer and personnel marketing in the care industry, Pflegemarkt.com, published data on internet availability in German care homes at the end of June 2022. According to this, almost a third of the 8722 homes checked by the medical service of the health insurance provided information on the subject. Of these 2,683 facilities, 44 percent said they had no internet access for residents.

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In Hesse, the implementing ordinance for the law on care and nursing services in nursing homes requires an internet connection at every place of residence – if technically possible. In addition, wireless Internet should be usable everywhere in the facility where residents are staying, being looked after or cared for.

However, this only applies to buildings whose building permit was applied for in 2019 or later, explains Thorsten Haas, spokesman for the Darmstadt regional council. Houses that were in operation before 2018 are exempt. There is therefore no legal pressure on numerous retirement and nursing homes in Hesse to expand the Internet. “Most of our facilities have buildings from the 70s, 80s and 90s,” explains Dagmar Jung, head of the department for health, old age and care at the Diakonie in Hesse.

The Diakonie offers computer workstations for residents in its 140 nursing homes in Hesse. Having your own Internet access in the room “is a big exception,” explains Jung. Installing WLAN in all rooms is “technically complex and expensive,” especially in old buildings.

The WLAN expansion is on the to-do list of Caritas in Hesse. “It’s going to be a lot of work,” says Brigitte Lerch, senior citizen and health care officer. Each of the more than 60 facilities has WiFi – but mostly only in common rooms.

“Anyone who wants can go online with us,” says Gisela Prellwitz from the German Red Cross in Hesse. But there is no standard in the 72 facilities. Internet is partly available in the rooms, partly at a point in the house, such as a café.

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The residents of the 21 houses that the AWO operates in southern Hesse all have access to the Internet – either in their own room or at a central location. The AWO Nordhessen offers residents in 21 of 30 houses access to the Internet. Two of them have connection sockets in the rooms, and in 19 of the facilities the connection is via WLAN. They want to retrofit, but the corona pandemic has stalled the expansion – of all things at a time when visits to the facilities were not possible.

Brigitte Lerch reports that the corona pandemic has triggered a surge in digitization in nursing homes. The residents spoke to their families more often via video link, explains Prellwitz from the DRK. And with new generations in the houses, the expansion of the Internet is increasingly being pushed. AWO Nordhessen observes that more and more people are bringing smartphones and tablets with them when they move into nursing homes. Nicola Röhricht from BAGSO emphasizes: “You have to understand: People who now come to the nursing home are in the middle of life and want to participate.”


(tw)