Bremen residential and care supervision

No, there are several conditions that must be met for a senior living community to be covered by the law:

- It is independent of the change and number of residents, i.e. there is a fixed number of places in the community. When someone moves out, someone moves back in.

- The majority of the residents are in need of support and collectively accept the corresponding support services.

This only applies if the landlord determines which care service this one person must have cared for. This only occurs in "carrier-controlled housing forms" (§6) and "nursing and care facilities" (§7), and not in self-organized housing forms.

No, many shared housing arrangements do not fall into this category. Private living arrangements in which the majority of the residents are not residents are cared for by the same care service and in which people are completely free to choose their care service, are not included. Nor do those that are self-organized and dissolved when the residents leave. This means that such residential and house communities, such as that of former mayor Dr. Henning Scherf, are not affected.

Affected, however, are nursing home communities that continue to exist when the residents change. These are usually the supportive residential communities offered by a sponsor (association, foundation, federation, company or similar).

No. The private support or care situation does not fall under the law in most cases. It does, however, fall under it if the support and the living are contractually connected. In this case, the resident's choices and decisions are limited.

In the case of self-organized residential communities that meet the above conditions, but where support and housing are not contractually linked, the agreements or contracts are only reviewed at the beginning. This is to be able to distinguish the self-organized from the carrier-controlled forms of housing. To protect the residents, labeling fraud is prevented.

No, this type of assisted living is excluded from the scope because it is typically a single-occupancy living arrangement and the living and support services are not contractually linked.

The freedom to choose special support and care services is checked once on the basis of the contracts, and thereafter only in the event of contract changes. There are no checks in the apartments, in the common areas only if there is cause to do so.

No, it only brings information obligations for the providers, for the service providers. The residents have the benefit of it.

No, the law protects new forms of housing and their residents and prevents labeling fraud. No one is prevented from setting up a shared apartment, service living or any other form of assisted living. Those who have nothing to hide from the residents need not fear transparency. These forms of living will not become more expensive as a result of the law.

A variety of offerings have emerged that combine housing and support. This diversity is good. But for the residents, dependencies arise, for example, if they cannot freely choose the care service. In recent years, residential communities and service living with home-like structures have also emerged. This can lead to labeling fraud, which makes it difficult for residents to know where they stand.

Yes, even under the old Federal Home Act, it was possible to a limited extent to check residential communities to see whether they fell under the Home Act. Some of the housing communities controlled by the home operator, from which there were complaints from residents, were checked to see whether freedom of choice was really guaranteed.

Yes, the specialist quota of fifty percent remains in place in nursing and care facilities. The home supervisory authority checks compliance.

Nursing and care facilities are inspected annually by the home supervisory authority. As a rule, registered and unregistered inspections are carried out alternately. However, if there is reason to do so, e.g. in the case of certain complaints, the inspection is always unannounced. The MDK also inspects the nursing and care facilities annually.

The test reports themselves cannot be published for data protection reasons. But results of the reports are to be published in the future. This is to take place in generally understandable language. Comparison options will benefit residents and relatives when selecting homes.

Many providers of offers need professional advice and are themselves happy to remedy deficiencies with a little assistance. Often, advice is also needed after an inspection, when deficiencies have come to light.

And: not everything that needs to be improved in housing and support services is a violation of the law. In this case, the home supervisor can only help by providing advice.

It is sufficient for the current tasks. The staffing level of the home supervisor must be reviewed regularly in relation to the tasks and the number of homes. In 2007 and 2008, the staff of the home supervisor was increased.

Many homes open their houses to volunteers, offer meeting rooms to groups of volunteers, organize lectures, cultural events and festivals, cooperate with kindergartens, etc. They have been doing this for a long time and independently of the law, without it costing them much money. Homes that don't yet do this can learn from it.

For most residents it is a pleasure when the houses are not cut off from life in the neighborhood, when volunteers come to the house, when the singing of a children's group is welcome. If there is really harmful unrest and noise pollution, a solution can certainly be found, for example, with the help of the residents' interest group.

There are experts working in the home supervision. They do not allow anything that could be a nuisance for the residents.

Yes, the participation of external volunteers is facilitated if there are only a few or no suitable persons among the residents in the home for the residents' council. The new law contains clear provisions for the representation of residents' interests.

There is an oversupply of nursing home places in Bremen and Bremerhaven. But the number of nursing home places is not centrally planned and controlled; instead, there is market activity with many providers. The law on nursing homes can be used to impose conditions for proper operation, but not to ban or prohibit the operation of nursing homes.

In the past, a distinction was only made between "outpatient" and "inpatient," between "at home" and "in a home. But the range of living arrangements has become more diverse. The new law takes this into account and does justice to the individual forms of housing without lumping them together.

In addition, care has been taken to ensure that each type of housing has its own heading, i.e. its own paragraph. This makes the law easier to understand.

Compared to some other state home laws, the BremWoBeG is formulated in a comprehensible way. However, because it must be formulated with legal precision, it is still complicated. Non-lawyers may find it helpful to consult the explanatory memorandum to the law if they are unclear.

The authority will explain and clarify the law with simplified presentations, brochures and events after the resolution has been passed. There will also be a presentation in easy language. There will be special information events for the home advisory boards.