Action Day for Caregiving Relatives
He explained that care is not a "private matter" and that society has a social responsibility. "We can neither morally nor economically afford to leave caring relatives alone," Badelt said. It is central to promote cooperation between professional services and relatives. Ambulant services could, for example, act as contact persons and reliably take over certain activities, stationary services could help with necessary substitute care, provide services on an hourly or daily basis and provide advice and assistance to the people concerned.
In the light of demographic developments, an overall concept for financing and organising care in Austria is urgently needed. According to WIFO, the number of elderly people in Austria will increase strongly in the coming decades, both in absolute and relative terms (compared to younger people). While in 2017 only 4.9 percent of Austrians were 80 years or older, this figure will rise to 6.7 percent by 2030, according to data from Statistics Austria. By 2050, more than every tenth Austrian will be over 80 years old (11.1 percent). In absolute figures, the increase becomes even clearer: in 2017, around 436,000 people were 80 years or older. According to the main variant of the forecast, the figure will then be 636,000 in 2030. By 2050, the number of older people already exceed one million (1.084 million).
At the action day, the interest group of caregiving relatives referred to a study by the Ministry of Social Affairs according to which currently more than 947,000 adults and 42,700 children in Austria care for their relatives: "The almost one million people affected provide "hidden care". They rarely go public with their wishes, worries and questions. 80 percent of them are women who often put their own lives on the back burner, often to the limits of their ability to cope with pressure. The First National Action Day will draw Austria's attention to the fact that we can all be affected at any time, and that help and support are very important in this situation."
