Elderly citizens complain about (inhibition) thresholds

Even though the age pyramid continues to grow, the seniors are lacking in "new blood. This complaint was made by several group leaders at the meeting of the seniors' advisory council at cafe st. Elisabeth. "The 70- to 75-year-olds still feel too young and stay away", frieda seemann from hofstetten described her experience as one of the leaders of the jesserndorf seniors' group.

The meetings are "at our klara" or at the pensioners' corner always a welcome change, the hof-stetter woman told the mayor. "Everyone just wants to chat a bit, you don't have to come with guesswork", has friede seemann experienced.

But even the chat sessions were considered important by mayor robert herrmann (CSU) and seniors' representative isabell kuhn (junge liste), and there were many of them in the city, as was shown in the run-up to the preparation of the next "grauturmla" show. The magazine presents the diversity of the groups.

More visitors to the senior citizens' home
Karina scholz, the new director of the seniorenzentrum st. Elisabeth, and ingrid steiner from the social work circle. 15 women and one man regularly visit the residents of the home – twice a month – "just to stroke their hand", like karina scholz, who praises their efforts, or those who seek out conversation and read a book aloud.

"We also go to the social psychiatric center from time to time, but we just don't have the people", laments ingrid steiner, who has been there for 23 years. "Some people just don't dare."
"Our residents have their needs every day", the new home manager describes the situation, which is why she wanted to change the care concept and bring even more visitors from auben to the senior center. "The staff has little time left for other things like this." Scholz and steiner agree on one point: "we lack civilians." A problem that the burgermeister has encountered "for the first time today" hoards.

Isabell kuhn described the descriptions of the individual group leaders as "commitment to senior citizens' work, without which ebern would not have been as well positioned as it is now". Nevertheless, there is still work to be done and new ideas to be taken up, the senior citizens' representative set out her own work program in the city council.

Several meetings a year
In the future, she would like to hold more than just one meeting a year, if only because "it gives me pleasure to see how the social groups work together. This was particularly evident again at the care day.
"Aging is a taboo subject for many people, but you can never start early enough to deal with it." Kuhn's conclusion: "i'm happy with the way things are going, even if there could always have been a few more helpers."
One of her successes was the handicapped-accessible entrance to the city's parish church, only to be immediately contradicted by father richard pfletschinger. "In practice, this does not work, the tur is open for too long." Although handicapped access is a good thing in principle, there are complaints when hundreds of churchgoers have to freeze because of three wheelchair users, because "people have been told for over 20 years that they should use the side portal in winter". This displeasure was known to isabell kuhn, but she still maintained her positive assessment – and "if it only benefits a wheelchair user".

The butt as a door opener
The social affairs officer pays particular attention to building design in the city ("in some buildings, wheelchair users have to push the door open with their backsides") and alternative housing options, such as senior citizens' apartments or apartments.

Edith fuchs reported about pleasant experiences in the multigenerational house in habfurt, where a loose and free computer course takes place. Mayor herrmann also imagined such a meeting under the roof of the VHS or in the sadtbucherei.

Maria hafner was pleased about the reception in the evangelic community center, lamented for the senior circle st.Laurentius but also that for events on a larger scale the space is lacking. The youngest meeting with the circles from jesserndorf and unterpreppach took place in the awo building, where they were very well received. Nevertheless, the question arises as to who will cover the risk of trips.
In addition, the mayor assured an internal clarification of insurance-related questions, especially since he also brought the future burgerhaus as a meeting place into the discussion.