Caregiver leave, respite assistance… The measures for caregivers are still little known

National Carers Day takes place on Sunday October 6. Several mechanisms exist to support them but remain little used by the main stakeholders.

National Carers Day takes place on Sunday October 6. In France, at least nine million people care for a disabled or elderly parent. This support is often essential but also exhausting for these caregivers who can benefit from specific assistance. Often little known, they are not much sought after by those mainly concerned.

In recent years, several laws have attempted to make the place and role of caregivers official with, for example, the creation of caregiver leave. It allows you to suspend or reduce your professional activity to care for a loved one. The employer cannot refuse this leave. Since 2020, it has a maximum duration of three months and can be compensated. The employee will not necessarily receive the equivalent of his salary, since the daily allowance corresponds to the minimum wage, and this compensation is limited to 66 days.

Few caregivers request this help. Around 13,000 caregivers benefited from it in 2023, while the government estimated in 2020 that just over 300,000 people were eligible for this new system. If there are so few beneficiaries, it is partly because this aid is still recent. A report evaluating the caregiver’s daily allowance, published in 2022 by the social security department, also points to communication that is too vague. The allowance, like caregiver leave, remained too little known, particularly among structures that can advise caregivers, according to this report.

“Respite assistance” is another system which allows caregivers to entrust their loved one to a specialized establishment, a nursing home or a relay at home, for example, for a few hours or a few days. To be entitled to this respite assistance, your loved one must benefit from the Personalized Autonomy Allowance (APA). You also have to be able to find a place in an establishment, which is not always easy. Last year, the government promised to create 6,000 additional places with the aim of reaching 40,000 places by 2027. Will this be enough to offer “15 days of respite per year” to caregivers, as candidate Emmanuel Macron had promised in 2022?

According to several studies by the Ministry of Health, nearly 900,000 people devote at least twenty hours per week to their loved one. This dedication weighs on the organization of daily life, but also on the health of caregivers. Nearly half of them believe that the help they provide has an impact on their physical and mental health.