[Rehabilitation of the aged]

It is common knowledge that in the light of demographic and social developments in the years to come our society will have to rise to the enormous challenge of medical care for the old, sick and needy. In order to shorten long-time nursing periods for old people in need of medical care preventive treatment and medical rehabilitation must be the main priority of all measures. Geriatric rehabilitation is subdivided into prophylactic rehabilitation (medical care, social sector), general rehabilitation and target-specific rehabilitation. Both the rehabilitation team and the motivation to rehabilitate are of particular importance during geriatric rehabilitation. On the whole, it has to be reckoned that older people need a distinctly longer period of recuperation, in which the clinical picture rather than the age is the decisive factor of a successful rehabilitation. As for Germany, that is only the beginning of stationary geriatric rehabilitation.