SAccording to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Solidarity, in 2021, nearly two hundred thousand people slept or lived in emergency accommodation centers because they did not have a fixed address. Among them, 9% are aged 50 and over, and their life expectancy is well below that of the French average. While an emergency plan was announced on Tuesday April 23 by the government to help the Ephad, who are encountering great financial difficulties, it seems important to us not to forget our elders who are also aging in establishments which, for their part, also, lack of means.
If extreme poverty accelerates aging, it also makes people sick more frequently. Chronic illnesses, kidney failure, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, psychological disorders, these ills of poverty weaken us and require special attention. However, people accommodated in emergency accommodation or stabilization centers age in unsuitable buildings and supervised most of the time by professionals not trained in the specificities of the disease and the consequences of aging. These social workers lack medico-social skills.
The financial resources allocated to associations do not take into consideration the demographic evolution of the population of these structures reserved for the poorest. They focus on simple shelter, food and social support. It’s not enough. “Aging well”, achieving this ambition of dignity and peaceful longevity brought to the highest level of the State by Aurore Bergé on November 17, 2023, must be accessible to all. Including those who simply do not have the means to care for themselves or to be cared for and who may, given their limited financial resources or administrative situation, have difficulty accessing specialized establishments such as nursing homes. .
For these reasons, it is necessary to adapt reception structures to the difficulties encountered by elderly people in precarious situations, for example by adapting rooms with recovery bars in the toilets, favoring walk-in showers. and non-slip floors in wet rooms, by choosing suitable furniture, giving pride of place to collective spaces.
Social support through care and public funding
In addition, the support currently offered to elderly people in precarious situations needs to be supplemented. As time passes, the poor old person, in order not to become a poor old person, needs, like everyone else, to be helped in the actions of daily life and to live in society in order to survive. Washing yourself and eating are not always easy things.
You have 34.51% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.