Are we abandoning our elders in nursing homes? Sociologist Michel Billé expresses his concerns at the microphone of Europe 1. He is worried that the elderly, in particular those residing in medical-social establishments, excluded during the period of the coronavirus to protect them, will be definitively put at risk. ban from the company. An attitude that would be consistent with what he considers to be the French vision of old age, which he criticizes severely.
"Old age is not a burden, a disease, a problem or a crime"
"We have built very negative images of old age, which is most often considered as a burden, as a disease", reproaches the sociologist who defeats this vision. "Old age is not a burden, a disease, a problem, all the more so it is not a crime for which those who have the nerve to grow old would be guilty."
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The problem is particularly sensitive in EHPAD according to the sociologist because "the old people are welcomed in EHPAD but the doors are closed, even if the professionals do everything they can to open them. We, a French company, tend to build establishments. outside the city center and to close the doors instead of opening them ”. Michel Billé thus notes "a true confinement of the old. They become invisible".
It is necessary "that the outside can enter and that the residents can leave"
This situation breaks family relationships. "Children and grandchildren can no longer weave the links they once forged with their parents or grandparents. There is a physical and geographical distance that has been established," he laments. It is necessary "that the outside can enter and that the residents can leave" of the EHPAD. This is currently made impossible by the health situation but Michel Billé fears that the pandemic will confirm "a normalization of a closure of the establishment where, today, it is absolutely necessary to mobilize to open them".
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We must prevent this tendency to take hold thanks to a "change of outlook" which involves new words: not "to place" but "to welcome", "to support" rather than "to keep at home". "The action you are going to develop will not be the same, will not be thought of in the same way." The sociologist also recommends opening the EHPAD "so that the staff can go to people's homes". This involves personnel "numerous, trained, benevolent, recognized, that is to say paid correctly".