As a person with a disability or a care level, you want to organize your daily life independently and self-determined at home. Often, this cannot be achieved alone. Assistance and support in daily life help you with this.
As a family caregiver, you need relief and space for your own concerns. Assistance and support in daily life can provide you with the necessary time out.
Two paths to assistance
Long-term care insurance funds services for
support and relief in daily life.
Other benefit providers fund
assistance services.
Two forms of assistance
People with disabilities or care needs require individual support in daily life. The tasks and areas of application for assistance are therefore diverse. They depend on the needs and wishes of the person with limitations, and on the requirements within the family.
When it comes to support needs, a distinction is made between basic assistance and qualified assistance. Basic assistance is also called compensatory assistance. The word compensatory is difficult. Therefore, we use the term basic assistance.
Basic assistance
Basic assistance is a "helping hand" in daily life.
Some people can no longer perform activities themselves, or at all, due to their limitations.
Assistants can take over activities partially or entirely, or accompany persons with limitations.
Professional training for the assistant is not necessary for basic assistance.
The person with support needs or their relatives train the assistant themselves in practice.
Qualified assistance
A person with a psychological limitation or a learning disability wants to learn something new for daily life. For example: managing the household without help. In this case, qualified assistance is an option.
The assistant supports the learning of new skills and practices new activities with the person, or helps to maintain existing skills.
For example: doing laundry independently, creating a shopping plan for the week, or using the bus alone.
Here, the assistant has an advisory and instructional role.
Qualified assistance requires professional training in the (special) educational or psychological field.
If necessary, several assistants can be deployed for one person or one family.
Assistance in different areas of life:
- School assistance / School shadowing
- Study and vocational training assistance
- Work assistance / Mobility assistance
- Leisure assistance
- Holiday and travel assistance
- Communication assistance (sign language assistance, augmentative and alternative communication, deaf-blind assistance)
- Parental assistance for parents with disabilities
- Assistance in the hospital
- Temporary (substitute) assistance
- 24-hour assistance
- Budget assistance
- Digital assistance / Virtual assistance
Tasks of basic assistance
- Living, planning, and structuring daily life
- Managing the household
- Managing social contacts – for example, friendships or participation in groups
- Participating in social and cultural life
- Making and pursuing plans for one’s own life
- Organizing one’s own leisure time (including sports)
- Ensuring the effectiveness of medical and medically prescribed services
- Supporting communication/understanding as needed
- Assisting parents with disabilities in the care and supervision of their children.
(Tasks according to Social Code Book IX, Section 78)
Apply for assistance
Assistance must be applied for. Since 2018, people with disabilities have had a legal right to assistance services. Social Code Book IX regulates assistance services in Sections 78 and 113. Assistance services are often a service for social participation. You can submit an application to the integration assistance office. The application can be made by telephone, email, or letter.
Clicking the button will take you to the website of the District of Northeim.
Help with the application process
Advice centers help with the application process.
Assistance services can also support people in other areas. For example: at work (work assistance), at school (school assistance), at university, or during vocational training. In these cases, a different benefit provider may be responsible, such as the Employment Agency, the Integration Office, the pension insurance, or the accident insurance.
Good to know:
You can submit your application for assistance services to any of the
benefit providers. It does not matter which one. The benefit providers must
then clarify among themselves: Who is responsible? Your application will be
forwarded to the responsible benefit provider. You do not need to do anything.
Nicole's experience
“Recently, I was invited as a speaker to an event together with my assistant. Yes, I would have come alone, of course. But it certainly would have gone differently – and been much more exhausting. My assistant drove me the half-hour from our home village to the event, and I was able to relax and look at the scenery on the way. That, too, is a form of relief for me.”
