According to a survey, the idea of being placed in a nursing home is apparently so daunting for many people that they would prefer assisted suicide. According to a representative survey published on Sunday in Dortmund on behalf of the Patient Protection Foundation, a good half of those surveyed (54 percent) said they would go to a nursing home if care at home was no longer possible. In such an emergency care situation, almost a third (30 percent) would tend to seek accompanying assisted suicide.
“This must be a wake-up call for the federal government,” said Eugen Brysch, Chairman of the Foundation. He called for geriatric care to be reorganized to be “future-proof, generation-fair and respectful of dignity”. “But so far there has been a lack of administration and too much political ignorance.”
The vast majority of Germans would like to live at home for as long as possible. According to the survey, 89 percent of those surveyed would like to be cared for at home by relatives or a nursing service if they need care, and the figure for those over 60 is as high as 91 percent. Only nine percent would voluntarily move into a nursing home, even if home care was still possible.
For the study, the Bielefeld consulting institute Mentefactum conducted two representative surveys between August 15 and 18, 1004 and from August 29 to September 1, 1007 Germans over the age of 16 in telephone interviews.