[Social deprivation and disability in old age - necessity and possibility for pedagogic interventions]

Pursuing the idea of a differential gerontology, the authors try to bring into focus those groups of old people that on the base of a lifelong social deprivation and/or disability have to struggle for existence on highly unaccommodating and precarious terms. Poverty, inferior social contacts, subnormal intelligence and alertness, poor physical and mental health, narrow range of leisure and social activities are shown as examples of lifelong deprivations, which lower class people are exposed for the most part. While the basic importance of taking special measures through social policies is not beeing questioned, different kinds of helping these people are discussed, using a three-step-model of intervention.