Weiterdenkertagung24: Transformation in the social and health care sector

How can a digital and socio-ecological transformation in the social economy succeed? Numerous regional representatives from the social and health care sectors discussed this question at this year's Weiterdenkertagung and tried to find solutions together. The Weiterdenkertagung has been organized by RWU's part-time master's degree course in Social and Health Care Management for many years.

Discussion - exchange - learning from each other

After the welcoming words by Professor Dr. Thomas Spägele, rector of RWU, and Professor Dr. Axel Kern, dean of the degree program, the conference began with a lecture by Dr. Gerhard Timm, former managing mirector of the Bundesgemeinschaft der Freien Wohlfahrtpflege e.V. The economist with a doctorate spoke about the socio-economic transformation in the social economy. "Companies in the social and health economy must review all of their areas for climate relevance," said Gerhard Timm. The areas of real estate, energy, mobility and catering are particularly important.

In the subsequent panel discussion, Axel Kern and Gerhard Timm spoke with Indra Baier-Müller, district administrator of the Oberallgäu district, Andreas Lingk, commercial director of BruderhausDiakonie, and Stefan Basel, head of social affairs and health in the district of Constance, about specific challenges from their respective day-to-day work. Together, they called for less bureaucracy and more innovation. The challenges must be "tackled courageously in order to find solutions", said Stefan Basel. The close exchange between municipalities, districts and companies in the social economy is essential and at the same time beneficial "in order to be able to design innovative concepts for care", said Indra Baier-Müller. Axel Müller, member of the Bundestag for the Ravensburg constituency, explained the expected changes for the health care and social economy as a result of climate protection targets from his perspective in Berlin. In the joint discussion with the audience, it became clear that companies must be given room to maneuver in order to enable creative solutions for the care of people and climate protection.

Healthy - digital - personnel - social

With its prominent guests and as a platform for networking, the Weiterdenkertagung has been established for many years. This year's event focused on the topics of digitalization, socio-ecological transformation, recruiting and information management. In addition to the presentation and panel discussion, there was plenty of room for further discussion and sharing experiences in numerous workshops. Best practice examples were also shared in order to develop solutions and strategies for overcoming the challenges.