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Corona vaccination for people with dementia in the home: who has to decide in this case

2021-01-05T16:25:48.410Z


Since the end of December 2020, people in Germany have been vaccinated against Covid-19, primarily old people and people in need of care. But what if someone has dementia?


Since the end of December 2020, people in Germany have been vaccinated against Covid-19, primarily old people and people in need of care.

But what if someone has dementia?

  • At the end of December the time had come: The first corona vaccination in Germany was administered.

    According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), 265,986 vaccine doses had already been administered by January 4, 2021.

  • The weakest have priority in the vaccination order, including residents of retirement homes and people over 80.

  • But what if an elderly person suffers from dementia and cannot give consent for the vaccination due to the disease?

Since there is currently not enough vaccine available for all those willing to vaccinate, the government has to prioritize.

The following applies: the higher the risk of a severe course of Covid-19 and the higher the risk of infection, the sooner you should be vaccinated.

According to the statutory ordinance of the Federal Ministry of Health, which has been in effect since December 15 and is based on the vaccination recommendation of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) *, the following groups are vaccinated first:

People over 80, residents of nursing homes, carers and other health care workers, are exposed to an increased risk of infection

.

The corona vaccination is voluntary: Those who agree will be vaccinated, those who do not want to be immunized will not be vaccinated.

But what about people with dementia who cannot make an informed decision?

The Bavarian Ministry of Justice gives answers

.

Corona vaccination for dementia patients: when relatives have to decide

According to the Passauer Neue Presse, press spokesman Florian Lindemann writes: “First of all: Whether the person concerned can consent to the vaccination himself or his representative must consent to the vaccination, depends on whether the person concerned is capable of giving consent.

(...)

It is given if the person concerned can understand and weigh up the nature, necessity, significance and consequences and risks of the medical measures

”.

Ultimately, the attending physician must decide whether the patient is able to make an independent vaccination decision.

However, if the dementia is already well advanced, this is usually no longer the case.

Then "the decision on granting or refusing consent must be made by an authorized person," says Florian Lindemann.

That could be the legal representative ("supervisor with the task of health care"), but also an authorized representative

.

In the case of a health care proxy, the decisive factor is which areas are covered: "As a rule, the task of health care should be covered by the vast majority of health care proxies, because otherwise the health care proxy usually cannot avoid supervision," summarizes Lindemann from the Bavarian Ministry of Justice.

(jg)

 *

Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editorial network

.

More sources: https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/aktuelles/corona-implung-zulassung-1830894;

https://www.bundesgesundheitsministerium.de/coronavirus/faq-covid-19-imichtung.html

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Source: merkur

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