“I can go too much in the evening like that”, jokes Laure, 24, trying this Wednesday, in a tram A train, the company’s old age simulator Reassure yourself, which has entered into a partnership with Kéolis for an operation on the Bordeaux network until April 15. The company, based in Poitiers, offers training to EPHADs and home help services in the New Aquitaine region with the aim of “providing prevention on the loss of autonomy of the elderly and raising awareness among people in contact with them, that is to say everyone”, points out Guy Le Charpentier, co-founder of Rehealth-you.
Motor and sensory limitations
Lucie Cebedio, psychomotrician and Corentin Gellie, teacher in adapted physical activity, wrap Laure’s legs in bands fitted with metal rods which provide uncomfortable rigidity and fix a strap at the cervical level to limit the mobility of her spine, which which forces her to walk hunched over. A helmet which reduces his hearing abilities and glasses simulating frequent visual pathologies with aging (AMD, glaucoma, cataracts) complete the equipment.
She is invited to move in the train and the young woman runs with an unsteady step. Result: she has a little sweat. “You’re hot because you spend more energy walking while being more contracted so as not to fall,” Guy Charpentier explains to him. When you have a lower energy reservoir like an elderly person, this does not necessarily result in a heat stroke but it is more stressful. “You have to give me a seat now,” laughs Laure. And the purpose of the operation is precisely that all travelers pay more attention to the elderly, who can be particularly uncomfortable in their travels by public transport.
Sensitize the youngest
The adolescent public, intrigued by the exoskeleton, is particularly receptive to the operation. “We had a lot of college and high school students, says Lucie Cebedio. At first they laugh and they film themselves but from the moment they test their behavior changes. This is an audience particularly targeted by the Resanté-vous company. “The earlier we make him aware of the fact that the elderly do not deliberately go slower, for example, but that it is the consequence of motor and sensory disorders, explains his co-founder, the more we can make him understand that if we want to go faster, we might as well help them and try to make ourselves useful instead of complaining. »
“We are not starting from a particular observation of incivility, points out Benjamin Grelaud, in charge of commercial action at Kéolis. What interests us is to compare the legal obligation to have priority places, tactile posts, level platforms, etc. with initiatives to make each trip a little more comfortable for the most vulnerable people. »
Lucie Cebedio and Corentin Gellie have tested the device themselves and practice their activity with the elderly in the light of this experience. “After having felt all these visual, auditory and motor limitations, we understand that it is, for example, difficult to ask them to hurry”, points out Corentin Gellie. “We adapt the pace and volume of activities even more when we have experienced this simulation” adds Lucie Cebedio. Resanté-vous hopes that, in the same way, travelers will have been encouraged to empathize with older travelers.