The investigation by independent journalist Victor Castanet on the “business” of private retirement homes highlights, once again, the situations of abuse endured by the elderly. In 2020, it was the group of accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) Korian which was the subject of several judicial investigations for manslaughter, endangering the lives of others and failure to assist a person in danger. . Two years earlier, the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE) on the elderly had already warned of the situations of “ghettoization” and of “latent abuse” in these establishments.
For the writer and psychoanalyst Marie de Hennezel, these situations of mistreatment are to be correlated with the ageism of our Western societies, where old age is presented in its negative aspects. The author of numerous works on old age and the end of life believes that “our society has a responsibility to restore a fairer image of aging”. A member of the self-proclaimed National Council on Old Age, she calls on politicians to take urgent action so that the elderly can age “self-sufficient and healthy”.
The investigative book “Les Fossoyeurs”, by journalist Victor Castanet, sheds harsh light on the destitute living conditions in nursing homes. How has our relationship to old age evolved in recent years?
These situations can be correlated with longer life expectancy. In a hundred years, we have gained twenty years of longevity, which has changed our perception of old age. In 1970, in his book Old age, the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, then aged 62, spoke of her age group by describing “old people”. In his day, it was like being 80 today.
Sociological changes in French society also explain this sometimes dehumanized care of the elderly. Before, we grew old in our family. But social mobility, the appearance of the nuclear family or even the reduction in the size of living spaces, with smaller habitats, have made it more complicated for the elderly to settle in with their children.
These mutations are made almost imperceptibly, so that the current generation, aged 75 and over, has never really asked the question of the conditions of its aging. Conversely, my generation, that of boomers aged 65 to 75, knows that taking care of their old age is an issue in which they must take part.
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