By SudOuest.fr with AFP
Despite the various governments, the Court of Auditors considers that the measures taken to ensure that the elderly continue to live at home are insufficient
The offer of home care allowing the elderly to continue to live at home remains insufficient in France, despite the voluntarist speeches of successive governments, estimated the Court of Auditors in a report on home care published Monday, January 24.
“The residential shift” often announced by the public authorities remains “unsuccessful”.
Since 2005, major national plans have “significantly” increased the supply of care allowing the elderly to stay at home, but it remains low.
20 places for 1,000 people
There are 2,125 home care structures in France, able to care for 126,600 people. This represents 20 places for 1,000 people aged 75 and over, compared to 102 places in nursing homes, according to the Court of Auditors.
This supply of places will have to adapt to “respond to the demographic shock linked to the aging of the population”, while taking into account the respective public costs of the different modalities of care, noted the institution on rue Cambon.
By maintaining current practices, around 108,000 additional places in nursing homes will be needed by 2030, according to an estimate by DREES (research, studies, evaluation and statistics department). At the same time, around 25,000 places in home nursing services should be created, estimated the Court of Auditors.
The aging of the population will also lead to a sharp increase in staffing needs for home care services and home help services. It would be necessary to recruit around 82,000 full-time equivalents by 2030, while these professions suffer from a “lack of attractiveness” linked to “arduous work”, points out the Court of Auditors.
In addition, the demographic shock will not be “not homogeneous” throughout the territory, which pleads for “fine programming and regulation, at least at the level of the departments”, according to the institution.