Die sorgende Zivilgesellschaft – Caring Communities als Garanten für ein Leben und Sterben in Würde

The term “caring community” typically refers to regional concepts of a culture of care that integrates professional and volunteer services, focusing on issues of dying, death, and grief. Both the caring community and the broader compassionate city movements are gaining momentum nationally and internationally, with the two concepts existing alongside each other. The concept of caring communities/compassionate cities originally emerged within the context of public health, inspired by the Healthy Cities Network. Allan Kellehear was the first to connect the public health approach to the palliative care movement, highlighting the societal approach of local care networks aimed at fostering civic responsibility for fellow citizens. Professional structures collaborate with civil society as well as with political and private sector actors to advocate for a dignified life and death for all citizens and promote mutual relational responsibility. Since the adoption of guidelines in the context of the Charter for the Care of the Critically Ill and Dying in Germany in 2016, a federal coordination office has been established to sustainably support the development and implementation of caring communities.