COVID-19: it is time to balance infection management and person-centered care to maintain mental health of people living in German nursing homes

摘要

Globally, the number of people infected with COVID-19 is still increasing. With currently more than 160,000 confirmed cases, Germany ranks sixth worldwide behind the USA, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom Qohn Hopkins University, 2020). Severe courses of COVID-19 with increased mortality are particularly evident in elderly people and those with chronic diseases like hypertension, diabetes, or coronary heart disease (Wang et al., 2020a; Zhou et al, 2020). People living in nursing homes seem to be at a particularly high risk of dying from COVID-19. Between 33% and 65% of all people who died from COVID-19 were nursing home residents in various European countries (Comas-Herrera et al, 2020).