Susanne Hartfiel

Families can integrate a variety of different people, such as sick or disabled members and people of all ages. But families in the Western world are in crisis. They hardly have any time left for family work and unpaid community-building commitment. All-day daycare centers and schools and inpatient care and facilities for the disabled provide relief for the nuclear family by ostracizing the weaker family members. Society is also fragmented into countless groups, which sometimes have little to do with each other. This does not have to be the case. The article describes ways in which interested families, individuals and groups can organize together to develop ways of life in which weaker family members are part of the community. The state is not released from its responsibility. However, in the spirit of the principle of subsidiarity, it should support families where they themselves lack the opportunities and offer people professional help where they live.