“I could never place my mother in an Ehpad. For me, that would be putting her in a deathbed. For Esther, as for many French people, the installation of a parent in an nursing home should only be the solution of last resort, when the degree of dependence no longer allows them to stay at home. An opinion shared by the majority of elderly people, driven by a fierce desire to stay at home, in the comfort of the cocoon where they have lived independently for decades. And inevitably, the Ehpad Orpea scandal only reinforces distrust of these establishments, as does the desire of seniors to age well at home.
But in the event of a loss of autonomy, when the state of health no longer makes it possible to perform daily tasks and care is necessary, is dependency still compatible with staying at home? With a few adjustments and the deployment of human assistance, it is quite possible. And without leaving his shirt there, thanks to accompanying devices. For the first concerned and their relatives, it is a popular solution.
Adapt the layout of the home to the loss of autonomy
When her mother’s neurodegenerative disease took a turn for the worse, Esther, a young Parisian woman in her forties, made all the arrangements to allow her to stay at home in the provinces. “To reconcile his loss of autonomy with staying at home, the first thing was to adapt his accommodation to his needs. She left her two-storey house for a single-storey apartment, and very close to the shops so that she could do small errands on foot in complete autonomy, since she can no longer drive. And at her house, exit the bathtub and the associated risks of falling, I had her install a walk-in shower with a seat and ramps. I also had the floors redone, favoring PCV boards, she continues. Not only is it less painful than parquet or tiles in the event of a fall, but in the event of incontinence, it is also very easy to clean for relatives or caregivers. I also installed light switches and motion-sensor bulbs that turn on automatically: small precautions that don’t cost much”.
Walk-in shower, medical bed or even access ramp, there are “practical and easy-to-apply solutions to improve the quality of life in housing and promote autonomy”, indicates the evaluation service of the personalized autonomy allowance (APA) of the departmental council of Indre-et-Loire. And when the accommodation is not on the same level, a stairlift can also be recommended when the bedroom and the bathrooms are upstairs.
Ensure presence, care and logistics thanks to human aids
Another essential step to compensate for the loss of autonomy: set up human support for all the tasks that the dependent elderly person can no longer accomplish alone. And the needs to be covered can be wide: cleaning, shopping, meal preparation… but also getting up and going to bed, washing or even nursing care. “My mother has daily help, to take her shower and make sure she takes her medication properly,” explains the young woman, who lives 300 km from her mother, but who can count on her close family. “Her sister lives only 15 minutes away, she comes to see her, runs errands for her and accompanies her to her medical appointments”.
And “for well-being as well as for intellectual and physical stimulation, it is important, when the state of health allows it, to ensure that your parent has interactions, activities, advises Esther. I enrolled my mother in a knitting club, it may seem silly, but it does her a lot of good: she sees people, and feels useful and valued by knitting superb sweaters and scarves for the family”.
Ensure remote security
But when you don’t live near your dependent relative, the risk of falling or any other domestic or health accident is a source of fear. To reassure everyone, devices make it possible to ensure the safety of his close relative from a distance. Thus, there are beeps to wear as a pendant, which can be activated in the event of a fall and thus trigger the emergency dispatch. Or fall and discomfort detector bracelets, equipped with sensors that analyze the biometric activity of its wearer. Others also choose to equip their parent’s home with a video surveillance system.
Esther, who has in common with her mother to be a geek, has found the perfect object to reassure herself while ensuring her mother’s support. “The beep was an interesting option but she said to me: ‘I don’t want that old thing.’ It was not even worth insisting, so I offered him a state-of-the-art smartwatch, the one from the Apple brand, which offers a lot of very powerful health features. It has a fall detector: if my mother falls, the watch asks her if she’s okay, and if she doesn’t answer, it triggers the emergency dispatch with transmission of the GPS coordinates. She can also perform an electrocardiogram and send an alarm in the event of arrhythmia or tachycardia, and since she also has heart problems, this is not negligible! And also has a built-in pedometer, which allows you to see if she is doing enough gentle physical activity. And all this data, I have access to it and am able to transmit it to his doctor if necessary. For me who is at a distance, it is a relief”.
Procedures for obtaining financial support
But between the accommodations and daily support, home support has a cost that not all seniors are able to bear. To meet these expenses, it is possible to benefit from financial aid. “When all of this had to be put in place for my mother, I filed a personalized autonomy allowance (APA) file with the department, which is the community in charge of this financial aid for maintaining people at home. dependent,” explains Esther. Aid accessible according to criteria of eligibility, resources, and according to the needs of the person. “Someone came to my mother’s house, visited her home, assessed her income, as well as her needs with regard to her pathology, in order toassess your GIR : it is a grid which determines the level of loss of autonomy. These elements made it possible to determine a personalized assistance program indicating the number of hours of home assistance and the nursing care which my mother needed, and the financial assistance to which she could claim. Then, I was able to contact home help associations to put everything in place”.
“The tax system also intervenes through a tax credit of up to 50% of expenses, with a ceiling of 12,000 euros”, specifies the Federation of Personal and Local Services (Fédésap). “My mother benefited from it for the installation of her bathroom”, confirms Esther. But the young woman knows it, “one day, she will no longer be able to live alone, so I will take her home. My will and hers is that she never goes to nursing home, where we count the nappies and the money. For this scenario, I will certainly sell her apartment to acquire a home in which she could live with my family and me. But not everyone has this possibility, and this generates inequalities. When will there be an ambitious government plan to support the home care of our seniors? It should be a presidential campaign issue! »