“Ehpad must evolve but Ehpad bashing is not the right answer today”indicated Yann Lasnier, general delegate of the association Little Brothers of the Poor, which since 1993 has managed several “small living units”, houses of about twenty boarders. According to him, “the key is above all the staff”. “The solution is to recreate structures on a human scale, with a correct supervision rate”, “closer to people, in their neighborhood, in the city that is theirs”he summarized.
franceinfo: Faced with the many testimonies of suffering in nursing homes, would you say that there is a social problem that we did not want to see?
Yann Lasnier: The issue of dependency should be a real subject, especially during an election period. But, unfortunately, despite the figures known by the politicians, despite this demographic transition which is before us, the question of aging is not a subject, whereas 75-84 year olds will be 50% more by 2030 We have to prepare for it because we have before us a new generation of elderly people arriving, this generation which was born after the war and which has other aspirations.
Should we put an end to private nursing homes?
The Ehpad must evolve but the Ehpad bashing is not the right answer today. We must act on two levels, firstly we must be able to adapt the city, build housing adapted to ageing. And when the loss of autonomy arises, establishments must be able to evolve. Then, it’s like in any human activity of service to the person, the key is above all the staff and the number of people that you put in front of the residents. Today, the mistreatment that becomes institutional, which puts caregivers in pain, is first and foremost a problem for many people, and it is on this that we must invest.
What should be done, in your opinion?
The solution is to recreate structures on a human scale, with a management rate in terms of personnel that is correct and higher than today. We have chosen, often for land issues of land prices, real estate prices, to build nursing homes outside the city when we know that people when they get older are more and more attached to their environment. , in their neighborhood. You have to be able to build solutions as close as possible to people, in their neighborhood, in their city, that’s really the solution. At the Little Brothers of the Poor, in our small living units, we also have a whole human ecosystem, with volunteers, volunteers, who form a community. This makes it possible to have life entering these establishments and not establishments that live in autarky closed in on themselves.