Institutions for persons with disabilities But the challenges also increased for all of those who provide care – whether professional staff in residential institutions or family members providing care at home. In many cases, basic care that was broken by the daily structure had to be changed to 24-hour care. This caused considerable strain that was difficult to alleviate. Examples of good practice The day-care centres dealt with this situation very differently. Whilst some facilities had only little to no contact with their clients during the closure, others went to great pains to maintain contact during this time. The manager of a day-care centre thus had regular contact to the clients and their relatives. She reported that after a few weeks the strain on some families with the 24/7 care of their relatives became increasingly evident. For this reason, she offered her advice to the relatives. Letters to the relatives were written regularly in another facility. The commissions had very positive reports of cases in Lower Austria where the daily structure staff came to the respective residential institutions to provide support service. Personal contacts could be maintained and the staff relieved in this way. Maintaining contact with caregivers The NPM shares the view that the temporary closure of day-care centres should not result in the complete break in contact with the clients and their families. Those affected need a minimum level of contact with their familiar caregivers. In addition, relatives who now have to shoulder the care of their family members alone need help and support. To this end, all of the technical channels available should be used to maintain contact and inform those affected about further steps in such unprecedented situations. Some day-care centres remained open In isolated cases, day-care centres remained open during the first lockdown. For example, the shop was closed at a daily structure in Salzburg, but the adjoining day-care centre remained open from mid-March to the end of May 2020. Residents of the adjacent residential building and external clients were divided up in the day-care centre in the residential building and the shop. Mingling of the groups should be avoided as much as possible. The change of group brought about by the COVID-19 measures also had positive aspects. Thanks to the change it was possible for the clients to become familiar with other work areas and some were delighted to perform the new jobs. Another day-care centre in Salzburg was also open during the first lockdown to give at least one client care during the day. The parents of the man both worked in system-relevant jobs and were not able to take care of him during the day. Difficulties with re-opening 91 The approaches to re-opening the day-care centres also varied greatly. Whilst some institutions developed their own concepts for the gradual scaling up of the day-care centres and informed the affected persons, other institutions re-