"The largest German care service is running out of steam"

"Caring for my sick father threatened to make me seriously ill myself." "I don't know how I'm going to manage caring for my husband and son in the future." "I gave up my job to care for my mother and my aunt and I am hardly paid for this work." Three statements from participants that show that the "health and care" system is in crisis. In early December, the Kommende Catholic Social Institute, the Dortmund Green Party and the Care Revolution Dortmund group organised an afternoon of study on this topic at the Kommende House in Dortmund-Brackel. Like unpaid home care, paid care is also in crisis. Financial companies that promise their customers returns of five per cent and more are pushing into the market. They are cutting costs wherever they can, driving down wages and increasing labour pressure. Many carers are giving up their jobs or switching to part-time work. The two invited guests emphasised different points in their presentations. Markus Kurth, member of the Bundestag for the Green Party in Dortmund, called for good care provision in urban neighbourhoods and advocated the establishment of care cooperatives by private individuals. Professor Dr Gabriele Winker, author of the book "Care Revolution. Steps towards a world of solidarity", emphasised that the proportion of unpaid care work in the hours worked in our country is higher than that of total employment. Together with paid care work, it accounts for two thirds of all work performed. If this were really understood, then the reorganisation of the economic system would be unavoidable. The destruction of the social sphere through neoliberalism should finally be taken seriously as a cause of the danger from the right. The fact that women were able to assert their right to their own gainful employment also enabled employers to replace the family wage for the male breadwinner, which was widely paid until the mid-1970s, with the individual wage. The consequences for unpaid care work, which mostly remained the responsibility of women, were not taken into account. Gabriele Winker called for full-time working hours to be reduced to 30 hours per week and for a basic living income to be introduced, at least for unpaid carers. "We need to continue the discussion," concluded Markus Kurth. The Dortmund Care Revolution group will next meet on 17 January 2019 at 6.30 pm at Kommende, Brackeler Hellweg 144.