With a festive colloquium in Haus der Wissenschaft, members of the Office of the Dean of the Faculty Human and Health Sciences appointed a new honorary professor, Dr. med. Matthias von Schwanenflügel. “The last time we appointed an honorary professor to our Faculty was in 2003,” said Dean Professor Stefan Görres in his greetings.
In his eulogy, Psychologist Professor Dietmar Heubrock, who is also chairman of the appointments committee, emphasized the extensive professional and political experience which Matthias von Schwanenflügel will bring to teaching “to support the interweaving of practice and with the constantly changing insights of research”. The honorary professor is Head of Demographic Change, Older People and Welfare at the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth. Previously, he worked as a policy consultant at the Federal Ministry of Health and in the United States. “Health and care-related topics have had a great impact on lawyers,” said Professor Heubrock. Schwanenflügel studied law in Bremen – Professor Dian Schefold, who supervised his doctoral thesis, was present, too.
Significant studies
“I am moved and a little lost for words,” said Matthias von Schwanenflügel at the beginning of his inaugural lecture, and went on to praise his time as a student in Bremen when “Law was linked to social science and economics." It was an honor for him to be an honorary professor at this University. Matthias von Schwanenflügel then drew attention to recent significant studies that are causing a stir throughout the European Union. For example, Professor Stefan Görres and Professor Heinz Rothgang have been conducting research on the assessment of personnel in in-patient long-term care facilities and the whole concept of “care”.
More people in need of care
The new honorary professor packed statistics from 2017 into his inaugural lecture that show the number of people in need of care is increasing steadily: “By 2025 there will be a shortage of 110,000 professionals in elderly care.” Families caring for relatives is gaining a new dimension. The need for medical care in inpatient care facilities is also growing incessantly and the number of elderly, multimorbid, hospitalized patients in hospitals is increasing. Professor von Schwanenflügel drew attention to the reform of the nursing profession initiated by government. In future, trainee nurses in the care sector will start with a generalist education for the first two years and decide only in their third year of training whether they want to become a geriatric nurse or a health or a children’s nurse. Already at the festive colloquium it became very clear: With Professor von Schwanenflügel, the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences has a professor who is highly capable of integrating latest developments into his teaching.
