A family visit to an nursing home, while respecting barrier gestures.

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GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP

After a year of epidemic, residents of nursing homes want to make their weariness heard.

This Friday, a group of elderly people called for flexibility in the health protocol in force, at the time when residents begin to receive the second dose of the vaccine.

“We need more freedom once we have been vaccinated.

We have already lost a year of our life and for us the remaining years count triple or quadruple, they are limited ”, declared during an online press conference Philippe Wender, 83, president of the association Citoyennage, which brings together residents of retirement homes.

Loss of family ties and convivial moments

This collective, supported by the association of directors in the service of the elderly (in nursing homes and at home) AD-PA, demands that the government position itself "quickly" on "four major reliefs" which could, according to him, "help to hold on and regain tone ”.

The associations are calling for a "return to normal" concerning visits from relatives and to be able to receive them in "complete freedom and privacy" in the accommodation rather than in reserved rooms.

They also ask that residents be able to return to their families.

“Seeing the world is a necessity, in one year we have lost part of our family ties,” continued Philippe Wender.

Regarding social life in the structures, they want activities and convivial moments to stop being "compartmentalized or separated by floors" and that the sanitary distance to be respected in the dining room be shortened.

“With a lot of us who are deaf, it ends up making a hubbub and it's not funny,” he joked.

"Weigh the benefit-risk"

Himself a resident of an Ehpad near Paris, the octogenarian said he felt "a great weariness of people, like the French in general.

The fact of lacking horizon and perspectives tires us a lot and we feel the carelessness ”.

For Pascal Champvert, president of AD-PA, while respecting the barrier gestures, it is necessary "today to weigh the benefit-risk".

"There is little risk of catching the virus when you are vaccinated, but there are real risks of mental disorders, depressions, behavioral problems, and falls from the elderly who no longer go out and do more physical exercise, ”he said.

Currently, nearly 70% of residents of nursing homes and long-term care units have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and 20% the second dose.

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  • Society

  • The elderly

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Ehpad