As of: March 9, 2024, 6:45 p.m
By: Robin Dittrich
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It's not just older people who can need care.
Children can also receive a level of care; parents need to know this.
Frankfurt – A child in need of care often means a lot of work for their parents.
In order to receive benefits from nursing care insurance, you can apply for a nursing care level.
This results in several advantages for parents and children.
Tens of thousands of children in need of care in Germany – care is often provided at home
When many people think of care, they think of older people, but in Germany alone there are tens of thousands of children in need of care.
In North Rhine-Westphalia alone there are 50,000 children under the age of 15, almost all of whom are cared for at home, according to the
NRW consumer advice center
.
For parents, it is often difficult to achieve a balance between everyday care, family and work.
“This pushes the affected mothers and fathers to their limits every day – for decades,” says Barbara Schmitz, head of the North Rhine-Westphalia Care Guide project at the NRW
Consumer Center
.
It's not just old people who can need care; tens of thousands of children are also affected and are usually cared for at home.
© Pond5 Images/Imago (symbol image)
If parents want advice about caring for their own children, there is often no place to go.
“In contrast to senior care, there is no local advice center for these people.
Affected parents have previously had to laboriously gather information about services, help and relief themselves,” the
consumer advice center
continues.
If their own child is diagnosed with a level of care, families have the option of using a child care service or converting the apartment to make it barrier-free.
Apply for a care level for your own child – here’s how it works
Applying for a care level is not complicated and is strongly recommended by the consumer advice center.
Parents can submit an application for care for their own child to the responsible care fund.
In order to obtain the correct form, you should call the health insurance company, which will send you the form.
There is no application specifically designed for children, so the standard form must be filled out.
If parents are overwhelmed by this, they have a legal right to advice from an appropriate agency.
Once the care insurance fund has received the application for a care level, a care assessment is imminent.
An assessor then comes by and assesses the child’s need for care.
To do this, a questionnaire from the medical service should be filled out in which parents can describe where the biggest problems lie in everyday life and when they are most challenged.
After the assessment, a decision is made about the level of care, and the parents receive information about this by post.
If the application is rejected by the fund, parents can file an objection.
You can also get support from care advice for this.
Parents should not wait long to apply for a nursing degree.
The care benefits are granted from the time the application is submitted, but not retroactively.
The North Rhine-Westphalia Consumer Center
provides information specifically for families with children in need of care
on the information portal
www.pflegewegweiser-nrw.de
.
(
rd/dpa
)