“A cool job, two nights a week, getting paid to sleep.” This is how Marc imagines the position of social worker in an independent residence, a reception structure for the elderly, offered to him by Pôle emploi. A story told in comics by Éric Salch.
The author Éric Salch, transcribes in drawings the testimony of his friend Marc, whom Pôle Emploi has placed as a social agent in an Autonomy Residence. For a year, they phoned each other, Marc told in detail as much as possible, everything that was happening in his “Residence Autonomie”, Residence that he discovered himself without being prepared for it (three days of training).
Out of this collaboration: comics Residence Autonomy, published by Dargaud.
What is the difference between an Ehpad and an independent residence?
An EHPAD is an accommodation establishment for elderly, dependent people. It is therefore aimed at elderly people with a loss of autonomy, and requiring comprehensive and medicalized care of their daily life. The status of Ehpad is issued by signing an agreement with the State and the Departmental Council which specifies the operating conditions of the establishment. In this agreement, the nursing home is committed to the quality of care for residents, and the care provided to them.
An autonomy residence is a set of accommodation for elderly people who still retain autonomy, alone or as a couple. Leading an independent life in their accommodation, the residents also benefit from collective services (catering, cleaning, entertainment, etc.), and actions to prevent the loss of autonomy. The independent residence is an alternative between staying at home and receiving an Ehpad. The Departmental Council, issuing the operating authorization for the independent residence, carries out regular checks on collective services and finances preventive actions.
“In theory, my role is to support residents in their daily lives: listening to them and trying to take part in their well-being, opening mail, adjusting their TV, playing music for them… In reality, I do the job of a nurse.”
Marc H. social agentComic strip, “Residence Autonomy”
Author Eric Salch
After a first career in the world of fashion, Éric Salch, born in 1973, launched into comics in 2015, publishing The Cool Chicks, published by Les Rêveurs (then headed by Manu Larcenet). Two years later, after a huge buzz on social networks, the drawn posts, in which he dissects and analyzes our clothing styles, are brought together in the look book (Fluide Glacial), which is a great success in bookstores.
The same year, he signed a more personal account, The small stony path (Fluide Glacial), in which he stages his questions as a single father. His keen eye on our political and social failings, combined with a humorous and striking trait (one thinks of Cabu or Charb), opens the doors to Charlie Hebdoof which he joined the editorial staff in 2018. In 2021, he offers at Glénat a personal and offbeat interpretation of Miserables by Victor Hugo.
Residence Autonomy (2023) marks his arrival at Dargaud.