Description (eng)
Demographic changes and the resulting increase in the proportion of older people in society are leading to new challenges in the health and social sectors. Therefore, issues of care in the elderly community are facing continue grow and need to be addressed. The majority of informal care and assistance is provided by female family members. Consequently, the question arises how adequate help and support services can be found for those affected. Likewise, when assistance is properly allocated this will also provide relief for ill-equipped family members who often fill this role. The family group conference, which originated in New Zealand, could be supportive in overcoming these challenges. A family group conference is a participatory and solution-oriented process where relevant actors in a person's social environment come together and independently develop solutions to their questions. In the family group conference, the participants are regarded as experts in their living environment. Consequently, the ability to find and create solutions is given back to the family system, away from the professionals. During the family group conference, an external coordinator takes over the organisation and oversees the process. In Austria, the method family group conference has primarily found its way into the area of child and youth welfare, because a legal framework is already in place here that secures financing. In the context of older people, the family group conference has experienced little institutional implementation. In the course of this Master's thesis, as part of the research project "family group conference in Caring Contexts", the question is pursued as to which prerequisites potential referrers consider necessary in order to be able to convey the family group conference in the context of older people. On the one hand, this raises the question of what exactly those affected, and professionals need for a referral and, on the other hand, what challenges and potential professionals see in this method when applied to the elderly population. In addition, this Master's thesis deals with the question of which media forms of representation are best suited for conveying the contents of the family group conference. As a result, the aim of this Master's thesis is to make the documents and short films produced available to potential referrers and people interested in family group conferences. With the help of this, several family group conferences could ideally take place specifically for older people and approach the overall goal of supporting affected persons and relieving caring relatives.