Spending ten minutes in the skin of an elderly person makes you sweat profusely. Even if you’ve done nothing more than climb a flight of stairs and walk through a few rooms. Decked out in a 17 kg suit, supposed to reproduce the effects of aging, everything becomes more tiring. The Domitys residence for seniors in Cergy (Val-d’Oise) has obtained such a combination because “sometimes we do not realize the daily difficulties of the elderly,” says Elodie Guerin, group support director. The combination helps to better understand them. She offered to 20 minutes to come and test it.
The suit simulates the loss of motricity, by adding knee pads, armrests, weights placed at the wrists as well as at the ankles. We then put on a 10 kg weighted vest which reinforces the stiffness of the joints. It is then necessary to add distorting glasses, which yellow the sight “to mimic the effects of the cataract”, and a helmet with noise reduction, which reproduces deafness. In about ten minutes, you have put on all the paraphernalia. Suddenly, “you are around 80 years old”, according to Elodie Guerin.
Become aware of the daily life of the elderly
Sit on a sofa, get up, walk to the bedroom, lie down, then get up again, climb a flight of stairs, write a few words on a sheet of paper… All these daily gestures can become, with age, real hardships. The managers of the Domitys residence have even made it a challenge, to be taken up generally in about ten minutes.
Regularly, the staff, equipped with the aging suit, challenges the residents by offering them to complete this course. Separated into two teams, staff and residents must perform the same tasks as quickly as possible. “When we tell them our feelings, after the tests, the residents tell us that this is what they experience on a daily basis”, says Elodie Guerin. They are the ones who win most of the time. “It became natural for them. “Not necessarily easier.
These difficulties “tend to isolate them”
It takes three times longer than usual to climb a floor. “It reminds us that it is important to remember to take breaks on benches during walks, for example,” comments Elodie Guerin. Even sitting down requires effort that one would have hardly imagined. To avoid hurting yourself, it is impossible to simply collapse on the sofa. You have to think about retaining the weight of your body, bending your already numb legs.
Each gesture becomes an effort, while around the others move easily, hold the doors, wait, speak louder. The greatest frustration certainly comes from the comparison with these people. “The difficulties they encounter tend to isolate them, confirms the support director. On our side, we make the effort to speak loudly, to articulate and repeat, to make ourselves understood. We learn to adapt to their rhythm. »