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Die Corona Pandemie hat für die Frage der gesellschaftlichen Organisation von Sorge dreierlei mit sich gebracht. 1) Die kollektive Konfrontation mit Verletzlichkeit und dem Sterben rückte – zeitweise – Fragen von Care ins Zentrum der politischen und öffentlichen Aufmerksamkeit. 2) Die Brüchigkeiten und Ungerechtigkeiten in Care-Kontexten und -Berufen wurden schonungslos freigelegt. 3) Die Sorge selbst muss – in dramatisch zugespitzter Weise – in den ethisch-existentiellen Spannungsfeldern zwischen Fürsorge und Selbstbestimmung, zwischen individuellem Wohl und Gemeinwohl sowie zwischen Sicherheit und Freiheit organisiert werden. In der Sorge am Lebensende forderte dies die Betroffenen, die Sorgenden und die Organisationen in besonderer Weise heraus. Im hospizlichen Ringen, trotz strikter, einschränkender Corona-Maßnahmen den betroffenen Menschen gerecht zu werden, liegen wesentliche gesellschaftliche Lernchancen für den Umgang mit existentieller Unsicherheit und der Organisation von Care. Dieser Gedanke stellte den Ausgang dar, mittels eines Schreibaufrufes die Sorgeerfahrungen von Care-Engagierten zu heben und im Rahmen eines lokalen Ethik-Workshops zu diskutieren. Im Zentrum stand die Frage, was wir aus unseren existentiellen Erfahrungen und den ethischen Herausforderungen in der Pandemiezeit für die Zukunft einer sorgenden Gesellschaft lernen könnten. Angeregt von Paul Ricoeurs Überlegungen zu Liebe, Fürsorge und Gerechtigkeit werden Kerneinsichten entlang der Dialektik von Regel und Ausnahme verdichtet. Drei Voraussetzungen einer Sorgeethik, die sich für die Berücksichtigung dieser Ambivalenzen musikalisch zeigt, werden vertiefend diskutiert: a) ein reflektierendes Umfeld organisieren, b) auf die Tragfähigkeit von Hospizkultur bauen, c) Gesundheit ganzheitlich denken und in Praxis und Politik verankern.

Background: Most employees will experience serious illness, caregiving, dying and loss (End-of-Life (EoL) experiences) at multiple points throughout their working lives. These experiences impact affected employees but also their colleagues in terms of health and wellbeing, and the workplace as a whole in terms of workplace safety, productivity and labour relations. The impact of EoL experiences on employees means that workplaces are called to play a more active role in providing support for EoL experiences. Aim: To describe how the EU-CoWork (2024–2028) project addresses its main aims to (1) create Compassionate Workplace cultures, practices and policies and improve health and wellbeing for employees dealing with EoL experiences in different national work contexts in Europe; (2) describe and evaluate the process of co-creation and implementation of Compassionate Workplace Programs (CWPs) and how these influence the programs' outcomes. Design: EU-CoWork employs a facilitated and co-creative Developmental Evaluation approach to the development of 12 tailored CWPs across four European countries (Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Greece). Methods: To evaluate the outcomes and processes leading to these outcomes, a mixed-methods Realist Evaluation methodology is applied, formulating and testing Context-Mechanism-Outcomes configurations and combining longitudinal quantitative and qualitative data collections. Results: EU-CoWork will generate evidence to support an expanded model of occupational health and safety risk factors sensitive to the specific challenges related to employees' EoL experiences. In doing so, several challenges will have to be navigated: involving employees with EoL experiences while avoiding overburdening them, avoiding tokenistic engagement, managing power differentials, balancing the need for scientific rigour with the flexibility required in co-creation, reconciling different epistemologies and disciplinary traditions and organisational resistance to change. Conclusion: There are potential long-lasting broader societal impacts through the stimulation of open discourse on EoL topics, the reconciliation of work and care, and changes in gendered work and care patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the good death has been widely considered. However, the perspectives of those affected have not received sufficient attention. In our empirical study, we conducted interviews with 32 people who were confronted with dying; these people were either terminally ill, elderly or else were bereaved carers. The findings show that for this group of people, dying is not just a physical process, but also a psychological, social and spiritual one. From the perspective of those affected, dying is never beautiful, in particular because of the associated pain and suffering. At the same time, people confronted with dying do experience beautiful moments. In the stories they tell of these beautiful moments, it is a beauty emanating from a sense of elevated emotion – of moral emotion – rather than any aesthetic beauty. We conclude that good care of the dying enables beautiful moments and creates reflective spaces for those affected to express what beauty means to them. We show that the public discourse differs significantly from the perspective of those affected and more efforts need to be made to include their voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In accordance with the pluralisation of life plans in late modernity, the societal organisation of care at the end of life is diverse. Although the public discourse in western societies is dominated by questions about optimising specialised palliative care services, public health approaches, which take into account the social determinants and inequalities in end‐of‐life care, have gained in importance over the last decade. Conceptual aspects, dimensions of impact and benefit for the dying and their communities are well discussed in the public health end‐of‐life care research literature. Our research focuses on the preconditions of a supportive caring web in order to understand how communities can build on their social capital to deal with existential uncertainty. As part of a large‐scale community research project, we carried out focus groups and interviews with community members. Through dispositive analysis, we generated a set of care‐web 'ingredients', which constitute and foster a caring community. These 'ingredients' need to be cultivated through an ongoing process of co‐creation. This requires: (i) a focus on relationships and social systems; (ii) the creation of reflective spaces; and (iii) the strengthening of social capital, and d) the addressing of inequalities in care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nursing homes are confronted with a significant change in their client structure. Palliative care gains importance in caring for residents until the end of their life. Relatives play a crucial role in caring for older people in nursing homes, especially in palliative care. As the perspective of relatives on palliative care culture in nursing homes has not yet been studied extensively, research in this field still has an exploratory character. Aim: The aim of the paper is to highlight some of the most important insights into themes and issues that relatives of persons having died in a nursing home find essential, with a view to fostering a well-established palliative care culture. Methods: Within a qualitative approach, four focus group interviews were conducted. Findings: Findings indicate that good communication is a core element of awell-established palliative care culture. Direct contact with relatives, talking about death and dying and the opportunity to be involved in decision-making all support a good palliative care culture. The fact that residents have a diverse range of social backgrounds, for example, regarding ethnicity, gender and living with dementia, influences palliative care in nursing homes and has to be taken into account. Conclusions: To create a good palliative care culture, management has to support this approach, continuously develop appropriate structures and act in a competent way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]