Around the kitchen table, the nerve center of the home, it is time for a snack for the children of nine and 12 years old Mrs. Jacquet as well as for "Magguy", as she is nicknamed by the family which also includes three dogs and a cat, and with which the old lady has lived for years.

"I was a sales representative in insurance until 2016 but when I was little, I wanted to be a doctor or nurse (...). After eleven years of career, I got tired of it because I wanted a more humane job," recalls Audrey, 45, who became a home help before taking the nursing assistant exam.

"I wanted a basic training," she explains, even if to be a family host of elderly or disabled people, no diploma is required, "it is enough to have a successful reception project" and to obtain approval from the departmental council.

In France, about 4,750 seniors are accommodated with a family host, a drop of water compared to the approximately 600,000 residents in residential establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad).

"For people who no longer have many families, this mode of support really corresponds to their needs: it is a cocoon," says Myriam Mazzocut, head of service in the department of Vaucluse, which has twenty host families of elderly people or people with disabilities, or some 60 places, a number "quite low" compared to demand. In France, the number of people over 85 is rising and will reach 4.8 million people in 2050.

Family care provides "personalised support" offering a third way between placement in an institution and home care.

"We try to preserve normal life as much as possible," says Nadia Chebil, 56, who has been welcoming people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases into her home since 2019, a pilot project.

After working fifteen years as a nursing assistant in a unit for Alzheimer's patients, "I resigned from the hospital civil service because I was on the verge of burnout. As I love my job, I wanted to continue to exercise it but in a human way, "continues the bubbly fifty-year-old who takes care of three people that day in her house in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône).

Caregiver Nadia Chebil takes care of Jean-Marie and Mireille, in her house "Les papillons de Marcelle", on May 9, 2023 in Arles © CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP

"When I worked in nursing homes, what I liked the most were the outings, making them do activities," adds the one who federates, via her association called "The house of the right to respite", many speakers coming to animate workshops of art therapy, theater or sophrology.

"Less medication"

That day, an empathetic photographer, Gilles Garnier, tries to make Mireille, 77, and André-Pierre, 83, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, find the gestures they performed in their respective professions through shots.

"That's what makes them feel the most good. When the days are busy, when you have seen people and you have continued to live a normal life, you sleep better at night, you take less medication," says Nadia.

Caregiver Nadia Chebil (c) with André-Pierre (l) and his wife Monique, both with Alzheimer's disease, on May 9, 2023 in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône © CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU / AFP

"I have always worked in a team and I wanted to keep this dynamic of sharing," adds the one who feels a growing suffering in the face of a "very very important turnover" of the people welcomed. Since Covid, they come in shorter and shorter periods and are younger and younger.

Like Jean-Marie, 56, suffering from frontotemporal dementia.

"It's a tornado," she sums up, turning to a tall, lost-looked, once very sporty man who doesn't hold up.

"You put a gentleman like that in Ehpad, the caregivers can not get by," continues the welcoming family, who receives the help of his two "assistants", his dogs Plume and Saba, real "therapeutic tools", especially during walks.

"The initial idea was to slow down the evolution of the disease, to make families win a few years before the passage in Ehpad," she continues.

"When people no longer have too much autonomy, when they are no longer too communicative, unfortunately, it is difficult to offer them things" in institutions. "Here, it is done spontaneously because she is with us, we will easily include her in what we do," describes Audrey Jacquet evoking the "benevolent" presence of Magguy.

"We keep warm," continues the host, to whom his job at home allows to receive 2,000 euros net and also to be present with his children.

"I am the happiest caregiver in France because I have a lot of freedom, I see happy people and families expressing their joy to me," concludes Nadia Chebil.

© 2023 AFP