The one initiated by the Gautinger Seniors’ Advisory Board and chaired by its chairman, Dr. Klaus Wagner with Dr. Johannes Schmoeckel implemented neighborhood help “Gauting helps”. A conversation with the two coordinators.
Starnberg Merkur spoke about it with the two “Gauting helps” coordinators Klaus Wagner (71, lawyer) and Johannes Schmoeckel (69), retired insurance business economist.
As Chairman of the Seniors’ Advisory Board, you have Gautinger Neighborhood Aid with Dr. Schmoeckel was born and started small.
Wagner: We founded “Gauting hilft” on October 17th, 2018 with a few volunteers like retailers Sabine Linse and Joachim Heinzelmann in the Gautinger Rathaus-Saal. We started the following year with a team of 20 to 25 helpers.
Then came Corona …
Wagner: Exactly. At the beginning of the pandemic in March, April 2020, after our call for help on Facebook, 25 people who wanted to take part got in touch within just one week. In particular, 30 to 40-year-olds who suddenly found themselves in the home office were filled with solidarity with their elders. So suddenly we were 50 volunteers in Gauting.
What kind of help is needed?
Schmoeckel: Single seniors who come out of the hospital after an operation, for example, need someone to take out the trash can for them. If the children of an elderly person who is temporarily handicapped, for example due to a broken leg, live somewhere else, there is always a gap in supply. Because health insurance companies do not cover such costs. But we volunteers only help on a small scale. More complex services such as cleaning or gardening work have to be carried out by professionals and paid for. Otherwise, our volunteers rightly felt they were being exploited.
Your latest project from “Gauting helps” is the digitization campaign for senior citizens?
Wagner: Yes. Because in lockdown, old people without internet access who sit alone in their apartments are left behind. 14 seniors from Gautingen have already registered and are now taking part in our basic digitization course, which starts in May. Instead of 100 to 120-page operating instructions from the Family Ministry, we designed nine exercise cards with Ricci Eckert’s red digital mouse.
How does such a digitization course work despite contact restrictions?
Schmoeckel: Our helpers first swarm out and explain to the registered seniors the Samsung tablets financed by donations, which we have made available as loan devices for two years. Because of their age or as a high-risk group, our students, but also most of the volunteers, have already been vaccinated. The first helper training course took place on Monday: The Knobloch couple volunteered to be pilot students …
Wagner: … because the retired student teacher Gabriele Knobloch is the so-called tandem partner, i.e. the digital learning support of our volunteer helper, her husband, the former mayor Dr. Ekkehard Knobloch. Ruth-Andrea Wendebourg, language teacher for German as a foreign language with digital teaching formats at the German Employee Academy, also provided us with enormous support in developing our digitization learning concept for senior citizens with additional interactive lessons in zoom video conferences.
Schmoeckel: We teach seniors how to write e-mails, Skype, face-to-face with grandchildren, children or friends. But we first had to motivate some older Gautingers to take part in our digitization course.
The residents of the Marienstift in Gauting are also supported by “Gauting helps”.
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What help is particularly in demand in the Corona crisis?
Wagner: The demand for shopping aids, driving services to the doctor or physiotherapist has increased in particular. Because our taxi drivers, who are all self-employed, do not always drive an old lady with restricted mobility, for example, the 500 meters from her apartment to the nearest doctor’s office. The Gautinger Insel also provides us with senior citizens looking for help who inquire about it.
Schmoeckel: Five minutes before I left for the appointment, Ms. Kaindl from the Gautinger Social Welfare Office called me. Because a desperate family man would have to be in quarantine with his wife and two children because the children had tested positive. The family, who are no longer allowed to go out, urgently need shopping help. I now have my father send me the shopping list electronically and give him the bag with the groceries in front of the door.
Wagner: But basically our currently 60 volunteers from “Gauting helps” only look after senior citizens.
Are there also cases in which you reach your limits?
Schmoeckel: Absolutely. We have had three to four cases of elderly people with psychological or messie syndrome. “Please do not come in,” said a person who had contacted us about shopping assistance. She also doesn’t have the money to go shopping today. I described this case to the social psychiatric service of the Protestant Diakonieverein in Starnberg, which takes care of the elderly woman with messie syndrome. A social-psychological employee from the Diakonieverein now comes to a pensioner to whom we offered shopping assistance, but who did not have his expenses under control.
What is the biggest problem with the elderly in the corona pandemic?
Wagner: Loneliness. The monthly meetings at the senior citizen’s café in Bosco have also been canceled for a year. For example, an elderly lady from Königswiesen is looking for a discussion group with elderly and young people through “Gauting helps” – as a spiritual stimulus. An elderly couple from the Marienstift are happy every week when two of our helpers take them for a walk.
Schmoeckel: If you feel lonely, just contact us. With “Gauting helps” everyone gets an answer, a helper. We have enough volunteers – and there is always someone who likes to give senior citizens time. Seniors who are interested in our digitization training are also welcome to get in touch.
Wagner: It is a very encouraging experience for us to see the commitment with which all of our volunteers, including those who are still working, contribute to “Gauting helps”. We experience the much-quoted solidarity in society here very directly.
Contact
Gauting helps in the StaRK forum. Bahnhofplatz 7, 82131 Gauting Telephone (0 81 51) 26 02 44 35, email [email protected]. The two coordinators can be reached there every Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Stockdorf branch in the youth room of the parent-child program, Mitterweg 34, coordinator Ulla Ottmar, phone (089) 12 76 48 96, or [email protected].
By Christine Cless-Wesle
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