Status: 06.02.2021 6:00 a.m.
It is difficult for people with dementia to travel to a vaccination center. However, mobile vaccination teams only visit stationary facilities. Those who live in a group of flats fall by the wayside.
Cindy Jark lives every day with the fear that the people for whom she is responsible could become infected with Corona. The 43-year-old heads the outpatient care service in the Grebin residential complex near Plön. 23 people with dementia live here in a shared apartment. Almost everyone is entitled to a corona vaccination because of their age. But Cindy Jark can’t just put her in a taxi to the vaccination center. “They would not be able to cope with it physically and mentally it will be a huge challenge for them to deal with it,” says Cindy Jark. “People with dementia live in their protected area and feel comfortable there. If they were driven to a vaccination center, it would be like tearing them out of their protected environment.”
No mobile vaccination teams for outpatient facilities
According to Cindy Jark, the best solution would be for a mobile vaccination team to come to the facility to vaccinate all those in need of care and the nursing staff. But such vaccination teams have only been to inpatient facilities such as nursing homes. Shared apartments for people with dementia, like the one in Grebin, are outpatient facilities. It is not your turn until the vaccinations have been completed in all inpatient facilities.
All staff are regularly tested for Corona, but a risk remains.
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The employees of the outpatient care service in the Grebin residential park are also entitled to a corona vaccination. But only two of them have had an appointment so far. Geriatric nurse Isabell Jagusch has tried repeatedly – in vain: “I can’t hang on the phone all the time, even during working hours,” says Jagusch. “This is time that the people we need to provide are lacking.” All staff are regularly tested for Corona, but a risk remains. “First of all, there is uncertainty and, secondly, you are always afraid that you will drag this in here,” says the geriatric nurse. “You don’t want to be the person who caused Corona to break out here.”
Little help from authorities and associations
Nursing team leader Cindy Jark has been trying since December to get information from the responsible authorities about when a mobile vaccination team could come to her facility. She is supported by Wolfgang Schütt, who looks after dementia patients as a general practitioner. “Our efforts to find someone to contact via the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians or the state have failed,” says Schütt. “At some point you get stuck on hold or you are in a benevolent consultation, which ultimately does not take any steps.” He himself cannot vaccinate the residents of the facility: “This vaccine has to be handled in a very special way and consumed quickly. Unfortunately, this is currently not possible for us as general practitioners.” Cindy Jark complains: “Everyone is just asking for patience until the situation is settled at some point. But I think it’s taking too much time.”
This is how the Ministry of Social Affairs reacts
At the request of NDR Schleswig-Holstein how people with dementia should be vaccinated in outpatient facilities, the responsible Ministry of Social Affairs wrote: “As a rule, you have to organize your journey to the vaccination center yourself. People for whom a visit to the vaccination center cannot be managed on their own, can, for example, be supported by relatives, carers or as part of neighborhood help. “
The fundamental problem that people with dementia cannot easily be brought to a strange place to meet unknown people is not discussed.
Without vaccination, those in need of care are at risk
When asked when mobile vaccination teams will also visit outpatient facilities, the ministry writes: “Wherever it is possible (for example, given the proximity to an inpatient facility) and enough vaccine is available, (…) over 80s will also go to outpatient facilities Offered also supplied. “
This is not the case in Grebin and other flat-sharing communities nearby. The people here are not vaccinated until the inpatient facilities have been taken care of. When that will be depends on the amount of vaccine available, according to the Ministry of Social Affairs. It’s taking too long for Cindy Jark and her team. “Without a vaccination, our people in need of care are in great danger,” says Jark.
Further information
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