[Status of the elderly and need for rehabilitation]

The following article is a revised version of a paper read by the author at the Annual general Meeting of the federal Working Team for Rehabilitation in November 1990 in Hamburg. Basing on the increasing risk of elderly people being in need of care, the possibilities of rehabilitation also for elderly persons are discussed. The basic position of the paper is the axiom that rehabilitation should rank before caring for a person who lacks the ability to "pull himself together" and just remains passive. The paper deals with the structural features of genuine need for care and present-day medical and nursing care situation of the elderly and their relatives who look after them. Finally, the central components of an overall rehabilitation concept for elderly persons are presented.