While Victor Castanet’s investigation into the Orpea group has brought to light serious problems of abuse in nursing homes, a new structure, created last December, took up the theme to debate it on the occasion of its first encounter. Her name ? The Cnav, the “self-proclaimed national council for old age”, a nod to the Cnav, the National Old Age Insurance Fund. The collective, which aims to put problems related to old age at the heart of the presidential campaign, brings together intellectuals, doctors, academics and activists from the associative world. “Old people”, as they wish to be called. “‘Young’ is not an insult, so why should ‘old’ be?”, launches one of the participants.
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And the old people are angry right now, the Ehpad scandal was a shock. So, in this assembly of 200 people, we exchange ideas to improve the quality of life of residents. Smaller structures are needed, according to Jeanne, 75, CFDT activist: “If we manage to have much smaller units, she explains, we restore a life of companionship.” And why not generalize this initiative of a director of nursing homes in Brittany, who has reconstructed a village square in her nursing home, with a restaurant, a bakery for the elderly, suggests Nicole, 75? Because, according to another Nicole, 81, it is a question of opening up nursing homes, opening them up to young people. “The links between nursing homes and people are fundamental! And not just between old people! It is possible, for example, to go to a school, to tell a story there. We are people who own the story of life !”
The first meeting of the cnav! pic.twitter.com/NcALGexkXO
— Self-proclaimed National Council for Old Age (@CNaV_Demain) February 14, 2022
Other proposals relate to the everyday life of “old people”: self-service three-wheeled bicycles, parking spaces reserved for them, or even the creation of “better aging buses” which would take care of residence. “France is a fragmented rural country and many elderly people live in these territories where medicine is less present, emphasizes Professor Saint-Jean, geriatrician at the European Georges-Pompidou Hospital in Paris. Also, rather than moving people, you have to go to them. And it’s very easy to imagine traveling teams of doctors, caregivers, social support professionals who go to the different municipalities.