Lyon (AFP)

While the number of victims of Covid-19 is increasing in nursing homes, caregivers have decided to remain confined 24 hours a day with residents: a radical choice to protect the elderly. To generalize? Opinions differ.

Stop the coronavirus! For 15 days, from March 18, no one entered or left the Vilanova de Corbas establishment, near Lyon, where 29 volunteers remained night and day with the 108 residents hitherto preserved from the epidemic. Others have since taken over until April 8.

This decision "was obvious to me" after seeing what had happened in China and then in Italy, explains to AFP Valérie Martin, the director of this accommodation establishment for dependent elderly people.

Finally, "we work more serenely. We no longer take care of the schedules; everyone is there!". "And every minute is devoted to residents," says the director.

- "new youth" -

Same feeling of "obviousness" for Isabelle Feuillet, one of the caregivers who did not hesitate to confine herself in the establishment. "It's part of my job. And the team is very tight."

For their part, "the residents are happy to know that we are with them. They are much more open, more attentive".

Some "have found a new youth, left their wheelchair to walk with a walker in the corridor!", She says.

"To see us there all the time, it reduced their anxiety" to be cut off from their families, adds the director. "For the moment, we have succeeded, but the objective is not to hold out during the entire pandemic," she warns.

Likewise, half of the staff at an Mansle Ehpad (Charente) chose to stay 24 hours a day with the 59 elderly people, who had so far been spared the virus, to avoid any external contact and thus hope to "get through the crisis".

The 18 volunteers are caregivers, maintenance workers, cooks, administrative managers.

However, among residents, "the reactions are ambivalent," recognizes Pascal Ramirez, director of the establishment.

- "not tenable" -

Certainly, "they are reassured that we are by their side". At the same time, "they suddenly understand that things are really bad outside".

And "it brings back anxieties, memories, especially of the Second World War for those who knew it".

In Essonne, the employees of the Hippolyte-Panhard residence in Coudray-Montceaux have also decided to stay overnight on site to guarantee the safety of seniors.

So, miracle solution or false good idea? "It is not necessary if we take strict precautionary measures", assures AFP Jean-Michel Calut, doctor corresponding to the Ehpad Louis-Pasteur de Lempdes (Puy-de-Dôme), which nevertheless deplores seven death since March 23.

He changes himself when he works in this 77-bed Ehpad, takes a shower ... And the seven doctors who work there are only dedicated to the Ehpad when they are on call.

Voluntary containment, "is the personal will of a group. I understand it, but is it a good idea when the staff has to rest," wonders Dr. Calut.

When caregivers "work 12 hours straight, if they have to stay overnight, they are worn out, despite all their good will. On the long course, it is not tenable".

Same skepticism in the director of Ehpad Sillingy and Cervens (Haute-Savoie): "It is a very generous idea, and which commands admiration, but it scares me very much about the exhaustion of staff," says Eric Lacoudre.

"How long will they stay locked up? 4, 5, 6, 7 weeks? And after the deconfinement?" if the virus is still hanging around ...

To date, the directives of the Ministry of Health do not refer to "the concept of total containment of personnel" which is "a decision internal to the structure".

It is still unknown how many seniors have died in the nursing homes. They are already 570 in the Grand Est. The Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon could give Thursday evening a national assessment.

© 2020 AFP