Retirement and nursing homes Ensuring cooling It is easier for residents who are mobile and able to orientate themselves to avoid overheated rooms, change their clothes without help, drink enough, use cold foot and arm baths, lay cold compresses on their forehead etc. Persons in need of care who suffer from dementia-related illnesses or whose mobility is impaired, however, have difficulty in adapting their behaviour to summer temperatures. This is exacerbated by the fact that their illnesses negatively affect the body’s thermoregulation system and these problems can worsen in the case of overeating due to certain medication and inadequate therapy. During prolonged heat waves, the staff are called upon to ensure and systematically check a sufficient supply of liquids, adapt food and dietary restrictions, and provide cooling through washing, foot and arm baths and hanging up damp cloths. If necessary, packages of measures with oral or intravenous rehydration therapies must be prepared for risk patients. Reducing heat stress In summer 2019 the commissions visited several homes that had not taken adequate measures during periods of extremely warm weather. Those in need of care and the staff complained that the operator ignored their complaints in this matter. In two homes in Burgenland, outside blinds were fitted and further investments promised after intervention by the NPM. The supervisory authority agreed that medication may never be exposed to extreme heat, to ensure that its efficacy is not impaired. Commission 6 demanded that the ambient temperature in the medication rooms be reduced to 25 degrees and continuously checked. The situation was entirely different in a nursing home in Lower Austria: here, Commission 6 praised the internally written guideline on “Dealing with summer heat stress” which is available to all members of staff. As early as April 2019, the staff was prepared and their awareness increased for tasks following impending heat waves. There too, the NPM was assured that an air conditioning system would be installed before summer 2020. A home in Vienna promised the NPM to set up so-called cooling rooms for hot days. Vienna: guideline for care facilities Together with experts, the Vienna regional public health authority developed a guideline for medical and care facilities that gives helpful tips and instructions on creating customised heat prevention action plans. Checklists help in examining and, if necessary, adapting the existing specifications and plans of the relevant organisation. They address each of the different levels of responsibility and include both measures that can be quickly implemented and medium-term aligned planning. In addition, the guideline provides a good overview of the topic of heat and its consequences. It also gives information on how heat-related health impairments can be recognised in time and which factors require special attention due to their effects on heat tolerance. The NPM considers this guideline to be an example of best practice. „GREEN: Cool & Care“ project in Lower Austria In a pilot project initiated in 2019, a climate ceiling was installed in a nursing home in Lower Austria. This technology will be – as the NPM was informed by the regional government of Lower Austria – installed in all retirement and 39