AtemReich: A Children's Home for Seriously Ill Children in Munich

The House and sunny terrace of Kinderhaus AtemReich
AtemReich Children's Home

The AtemReich children's home is a care facility for children and teens with serious breathing difficulties who need intensive care or artificial respiration. (AtemReich means “breath-rich”). The residents are up to 18 years of age. AtemReich offers children a family-like home where they are cared for by a team of trained doctors, caregivers, educators, and therapists. Emergency care is optimally secured by a 24-hour hotline to an adjacent children's hospital, the Dritter Orden Clinic.

The home is run by AtemReich GmbH, founded in February 2005. AtemReich's partners are the Blindeninstitut München (Institute for the Blind Munich), the Mobile Ambulante Pflegepartner GmbH & Co. KG (mobile outpatient care), Prinzessin Rupprecht Verein e.V. and the Pfennigparade Foundation. The facility's current director, Felicitas Hanne, was responsible for the concept and design. Hanne is a trained pediatric nurse, nurse educator and mediator for business situations with many years of leadership experience in the hospice field.

The goal of the committed team is to ensure that all of the children and adolescents in the home, despite their impairments and need for care, are treated as full human beings. The home makes it possible for children to enjoy a life that is age-appropriate and dignified, according to their individual needs and possibilities. Care and support go hand in hand in the children's home.

The children's home began with six residents in 2006. Even after a short time it received additional inquiries from parents who wanted to know their children, too, were receiving competent and loving care on a longer-term basis. Plans were made to expand within two years to allow 12 permanent residents. Holiday stays, where parents who care for their children at home could bring their children for a short-term stay, were also created. In 2008 the children's home undertook extensive renovations in the existing facilities and began converting rooms in a newly rented area in the same building. A festive opening ceremony took place in September 2009, and in January 2010 the first children moved in. In October 2013, the home was able to open a youth group. Thanks to this expansion, the home can now house 21 residents.

The ongoing costs for medical care are covered by the health and nursing care insurance companies and by social aid agencies. The Software AG Foundation has been providing start-up funding for this project since 2006. The foundation also financed construction work in conjunction with the extension of the children's home and creation of a youth group.