The “Future of Care” research cluster, which has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research since 2017, will be funded for another five years with 20 million euros in order to spread technological innovations in care beyond the model regions. The Division of Ethics in Medicine at the University of Oldenburg is involved with its own sub-project in the Pflegeinnovationszentrum (Care Innovation Center) (PIZ for short): The sub-project, led by Prof. Schweda, focuses on ethical and social aspects of the distribution of care responsibilities in complex care settings of outpatient and inpatient care.

With “Successful Aging”? Leitbilder des Alterns in der Diskussion, a volume co-edited by Prof. Schweda was recently published. The volume brings together central perspectives of German-speaking ageing research on successful ageing. The aim is to take a critical look at the scientific justification, social significance, moral acceptability and political legitimacy of contemporary models of age(ing). In particular, the contributions shed light on which understandings of age(ing) underlie the various approaches and varieties of successful ageing, which guiding principles have found their way into scientific debates and political discussions and how they relate to the everyday experiences of older people and to philosophical-ethical theories of a good life in old age. In addition to Prof. Schweda, Lena Stange and Niklas Ellerich-Groppe from the Department of Ethics in Medicine are also represented in the volume.

The volume can be found here: link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-658-41465-8.

On April 1, 2024, the new research project "The Future of Intergenerational Solidarity beyond the Pandemic: Empirically-Informed Ethical Analysis and Public Deliberation" will start at the Department of Ethics in Medicine, which is funded by the Volkswagen Foundation with a total of around 1.3 million euros. Following on from the predecessor project PRISMAE, the project sees the coronavirus pandemic as a multidimensional stress test for solidarity between generations. The debates and discussions that began in this context touched on fundamental questions of social cohesion and the legitimacy of moral and legal claims. In view of further challenges that are changing the future horizon of European societies, such as the war in Ukraine, demographic change and the climate crisis, such questions are becoming increasingly important. Against this background, the project aims at the empirical exploration, ethical evaluation and public deliberation of ideas of intergenerational solidarity in Germany, Sweden and the UK.

In addition to Prof. Mark Schweda, the international research consortium consists of Dr. Larissa Pfaller (FAU Erlangen-Nuremberg), Prof. Dr. Andreas Motel-Klingebiel (Linköping University, Sweden) and Prof. Paul Higgs (University College London). Two doctoral positions will be established at the Department of Ethics in Medicine as part of the project.

Further information on the project can be found here: https://uol.de/en/health-services-research/divisions/ethics-in-medicine/research/the-future-of-intergenerational-solidarity

Prof. Mark Schweda, together with Annette Leibing (Hanse Wissenscahftskolleg/University of Montreal), has convened a study group at the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg. Under the name "Rejecting Futures: Practices of Resistance and Failure," the study group, with its high-caliber members, will scientifically examine the diversity of forms of rejecting the future. These include old and new cultural practices that serve to avoid confrontation with tomorrow, to refuse foresight and planning, and to shirk responsibility for future developments, relying instead on fate or chance (e.g., using random generators in decision-making, insisting on the right not to know, issuing health care proxies). For more information on the study group visit see the webpages on the research activities of the Division of Ethics in Medicine.

As part of the MoDeCare project, the Division of Ethics in Medicine is organizing a workshop on "Putting care in context: Care ethics, care constellations, and caring communities" in collaboration with the Division of Organizational Care Research and researchers from Bar Ilan University in Israel. Participation is possible on site and online.

For more information on the workshop and registration, please see below.

Workshop: Putting care in context: Care ethics, care constellations, and caring communities 

17 October 2023, Bar Ilan University Feldman Building (301) / Online

Organization:
Prof. Dr. Liat Ayalon (School of Social Work, Ramat Gan, Israel), Dr. Natalie Ulitsa (School of Social Work, Ramat Gan, Israel), Dr. Milena von Kutzleben (Organizational Health Services Research, Oldenburg, Germany), Dr. Merle Weßel (Ethics in Medicine, Oldenburg, Germany), Anna-Eva Nebowsky (Ethics in Medicine, Oldenburg, Germany), and Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda (Ethics in Medicine, Oldenburg, Germany)

Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation

The prevalence of dementia is on the rise globally, posing considerable challenges for families, communities, and healthcare systems. To address the gaps in dementia care, home-based care with migrant caregivers has emerged as a common solution, including in Germany and Israel. This caregiving arrangement, involving individuals with dementia, their relatives, and migrant live-in carers, is influenced by various contextual factors such as family constellation and dynamics, community support, political environment, and legal considerations. These factors can vary between families and across Germany and Israel.
Our collaborative interdisciplinary research project, MoDeCare (https://uol.de/en/ohsr/projects/modecare), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation, aims to deepen our understanding of live-in dementia care arrangements in both countries. The primary objective is to develop evidence-based ethical recommendations for care providers and policymakers. By comparing insights from Germany and Israel, we strive to shed light on the specific features and nuances of these arrangements. The preliminary findings of this project will be presented and discussed in our hybrid jointly organized workshop, which will bring together researchers from diverse fields, including medical ethics, dementia care services and research, health services research, sociology, social work, and psychology.
Our workshop aims to examine and discuss various aspects of dementia care in general, with a particular focus on live-in care arrangements. We will explore these topics within the frameworks of care ethics, care constellations, and caring communities. This comprehensive approach will enable us to gain a holistic perspective that acknowledges the familial, communal, social, and legal dimensions of caregiving. The workshop will place special emphasis on highlighting the interconnected nature of dementia care in general and live-in care arrangements in particular, underlining the significance of ethical considerations, collective efforts, and community support.

Registration: 
The number of places is limited. Please register as an in-person or online participant by sending an email to Natalie Ulitsa (nata-ul@hotmail.com) by September 30, 2023. 

Programme

09.30-09.45 Welcome to the hybrid workshop (Prof. Liat Ayalon and Prof. Mark Schweda) 

09.45-10.00 Spoken Word Poetry: „A cure for dementia“ Mrs. Noa Levy, a spoken word poetry artist and doctoral fellow, Bar-Ilan University

10.00-10.45 Session 1: Care, Live-in Care, and Care Constellations (Chair: Dr. Milena von Kutzleben)

10.00-10.15 Comparative ethical exploration of moral conflicts in familial dementia care involving migrant Live-in Carers: Preliminary results from Germany and Israel (Dr.Natalie Ulitsa, Bar Ilan University & Ms. Anna-Eva Nebowsky, University of Oldenburg) 

10.15-10.30 A good enough metaphor’: Female migrant caregivers using Motherhood as an interpretative framework for personal and professional relationships (Dr. Sharon Ramer Biel, Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yafo)

10.30-10.45 A micro caregiving initiation: Remarriage of older widowed Muslim men in Israel (Dr. Chaya Koren, University of Haifa)

10.45-11.00 Coffee Break

11.00-12.00 Session 2: Caring communities (Chair: Dr. Natalie Ultisa)

11.00-11.15 Dementia Friends program in Israel: Key findings from an evaluation study  (Dr. Shiri Shinan-Altman, School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University) & Prof. (Emerita) Perla Werner, Department of Community Mental Health, University of Haifa.

11.15-11.30 Needs, services, and support for caregivers of people with dementia at home (Mrs. Debi Lahav, Emda, Israel Alzheimer's Association)

11:30-11:45 The digital community of live-in caregivers on Facebook: The Case of Filipino migrant workers in Israel (Dr. Deby Babis,  Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ariel University)

11:45-12:00 Dementia care for culturally diverse groups: Insights from a pilot study and next steps to consider (Dr. Zümrüt Alpinar Sencan, Institute for Ethics, History and Philosophy of Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Germany)

12.00-13.00 Lunch Break / Poster Session (Dr. Hanan Abujabal; Dr. Pnina Dolberg; Dr. Daniela Arieli)

13.00-14.30 Session 3: Care and care ethics (Chair: Anna-Eva Nebowsky)

13.00-13.15 Who takes care of the caregivers in nursing homes? On the possible relationships between vulnerability and mistreatment (Dr. Sagit Lev, School of Social Work, Bar Ilan University & Dr. Pnina Dolberg, Department of Social Work, Ruppin Academic Center)

13.15-13.30 Facets of cross-border mobility for live-in care work in Germany. An ethnographic approach to the global phenomenon (Dr. Tanja Višić, Institute for European Ethnology and Cultural Analysis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany)

13.30-13.45 Ethical aspects of medical and nursing care of people with dementia with a migration background (Prof. Hürrem Tezcan-Güntekin, The Alice-Salomon-Hochschule Berlin)

13.45-14.00 My lifeline: The living and caregiving experience in the eyes of a foreign caregiver (Mrs. Ann Pabion, Caregiver from the Philippines)                      

14.00-14.30 Discussion and closing remarks:  Prof. Amber M. Gum (Department of Mental Health Law & Policy, University of South Florida), Prof. Liat Ayalon, and Prof. Mark Schweda

The recently published issue of the Zeitschrift für Praktische Philosophie also includes a topical collection on "Time and the Good Life" co-edited by Prof. Mark Schweda. In it, nine contributions deal with the relation between ideas of good life and time. 

All contributions are freely accessible on the following page: www.praktische-philosophie.org/zfpp/issue/view/21/22

Simon Gerhards, student assistant and PhD student at the Division of Ethics in Medicine was recently a guest on the podcast "Abgehört - der Medizindidaktik Podcast". In the 13th episode of this podcast, titled "Racism in Medical Education and Health Care," he spoke with Thomas Schmidt and Susanne Quintes about the research in the SoDiMe study, which focuses on medical students' perspectives on racism in medicine and health care. 

The podcast can be found on the webpage of medical didactics (https://uol.de/medizindidaktik/digitale-lehre/e-learning-podcasts) and on all podcast platforms. 

For more information on the topic, we also recommend the following publication:

Gerhards, S., Schweda, M., & Weßel, M. (2023). Perspektiven von Medizinstudierenden auf Rassismus in Medizin und Gesundheitsversorgung in Deutschland: Identifikation von Problemen und Lernbedarfen für die medizinische Ausbildung. GMS Journal for Medical Education, 40(2), Doc22. https://doi.org/10.3205/zma001604 

On July 4, 2023, Niklas Ellerich-Groppe, research associate at the division of Ethics in Medicine, was live on stage at the Summer Science Slam of the VolkswagenFoundation at the Xplanatorium Hanover. In his slam „Let’s Talk about Solidarity – Intergenerationelle Solidarität in der Corona-Pandemie und danach”, he presented results from the VolkswagenFoundation funded project PRISMAE. 

A stream of the event can be found here: https://youtu.be/2mJNVZ2-VjI?t=5003.

On May 11, 2023, Prof. Dr. Annette Leibing (Université de Montréal) will give a talk titled "The "new dementia" - A socio-moral perspective of dementia prevention". Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda and the Department of Ethics in Medicine from the University of Oldenburg are pleased to invite you to the lecture and the subsequent discussion. The lecture will take place from 4-6 p.m. c.t. in building V03 room V03-D003, Ammerländer Heerstr. 114-118, 26129 Oldenburg. We are looking forward to a large attendance.

Please find the poster for this event here.

A new report of the Nuffield Council of Bioethics on the future of ageing was recently published. Prof. Schweda was involved in the preparation of the report as a member of the working group.

In their report, the scientists come to a cautious conclusion. They see ageism in society as a decisive factor that impairs the potential of research and innovation to support older people in living successfully in old age. They therefore urge that more efforts be made to put the needs of older people back at the center of research and innovation. To this end, the report presents an ethical framework and formulates concrete recommendations to address this challenge at all levels of research and innovation. 

The full report, an overview and more information can be found here: www.nuffieldbioethics.org/publications/future-of-ageing.

The current issue of the journal Ethics in Medicine contains a special issue which was developed within the scope of the DFG Research Group 5022 and was jointly edited by Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda and Prof. Dr. Claudia Wiesemann. The tspecial issue is named after the research group "Medicine and the Time Structure of Good Life" and dedicates its editorial, seven original contributions and case review with two commentaries to the „temporal structures of the good life in the horizon of modern medicine".

The entire special issue is freely accessible via this link: https://www.springermedizin.de/ethik-in-der-medizin-1-2023/24063576

Bringing together scholars from philosophy, bioethics, law, sociology, and anthropology, this topical collection explores how innovations in the field of biomedicine and the life sciences are challenging and transforming traditional understandings of human temporality and of the temporal duration, extension and structure of human life. The contributions, co-edited by Prof. Dr. Mark Schweda and Dr. Nitzan Rimon-Zarfaty, aim to expand the theoretical debate by highlighting the significance of time and human temporality in different discourses and practical contexts, and developing concrete, empirically informed, and culturally sensitive perspectives.

The topical collection is available here: https://link.springer.com/journal/40656/topicalCollection/AC_b7f1fdf1d01488ba17da6bc0250508b8

On Wednesday, February 15th 2023, the workshop "Moral Conflicts in Familial Dementia Care Involving Migrant Live-in Carers - Ethical and Social-psychological Perspectives" will be held at the Division of Ethics in Medcine of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg.

In light of the nursing shortage in general, and the significant void in dementia care in particular, migrant so-called "live-in carers" can be considered as a widespread solution for home care of people with dementia in recent years. Considering legal, social, and moral aspects, these arrangements are prone to difficulties. At the same time, there are important national specificities and differences. In Israel, this kind of care is legally regulated, whereas in Germany, a legal framework is missing. The MoDeCare project at the University of Oldenburg and Bar-Ilan University in Israel is investigating the emerging challenges from an ethical and socio-psychological perspective. Preliminary results of this project will be presented in the workshop.

The workshop is designed as a hybrid format, registration is possible by mail to Anna-Eva Nebowsky (anna-eva.nebowsky@uni-oldenburg.de). Dr. Merle Weßel is available for further questions (merle.wessel@uni-oldenburg.de).

The program can be found here: https://uol.de/f/6/dept/versorgung/ag/medethik/News-Dateien/Workshop_MoDeCare.pdf?v=1674069882

Simon Gerhards, doctoral student and student assistant in the Division of Ethics in Medicine, has been selected for funding as part of the Faculty VI's Dr. med. Excellence Program.

Each year, the structured excellence program offers up to five students of medicine the opportunity to develop and carry out an in-depth research project for their doctorate research over a period of six months. In addition to financial support, this also involves non-material support within the scope of an accompanying curriculum.

Simon Gerhards carries out his doctoral studies under supervision of Prof. Mark Schweda at the Division of Ethics in Medicine. His research interest are the views of medical students on racism in medicine.