No longer say "dependent" but "vulnerable". No longer say "bedridden" but "person with reduced mobility". To fight against discrimination of the elderly, directors of retirement homes and specialists in gerontology offer a new vocabulary grid to better speak of our seniors. These four experts will give their recommendations in the coming days to the new Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
Too negative, degrading, even demeaning, words to speak of seniors are responsible, according to Pascal Champvert, responsible for retirement homes and rapporteur for the vocabulary committee of the High Council for Age, for a bad image of our seniors in the society. "Words are key, it's not a gadget," he says. They position them politically and sociologically, ”denounces the man who is also president of the AD-PA association, which brings together directors of retirement homes or home support structures.
With three colleagues, he therefore formulated a precise grid of words to be deleted. So goodbye to "home support", which implies the idea of restraint. "It is better to say support at home," says Alain Koskas, psycho-gerontologist, president of the International Federation of Associations of the Elderly (FIAPA). Nor will an elderly person be called upon to be "supported" but to be "accompanied".
"I am 94 years old, I assume to be old"
These developments are very much aimed at the medical community, which is struggling to attract. "Saying neuro-progressive disease instead of neuro-degenerative disease does not make the same job description for a caregiver," says Philippe Denormandie, neuro-orthopedic surgeon. "What we have managed to do for people with disabilities, we have not yet done for seniors," he regrets. The four experts would also like to change the name of Ehpad, including the "D", refers to dependence. "We can speak of a residence, or a retirement home".
Dominique, seated with one of her friends in a park in the 15th arrondissement, feels far from these debates. "Even if it is true that when we are talked about, we are talking about the old," she begins, "that is what we are!" I am 94 years old, I assume to be old ”, she decides. Marie-Michelle, her two dogs at the end of the leash, also accepts her 82 years. “I am an elderly person, certainly. But I am far from being inactive! ", She assures. "It is true that the way society looks when you stop working, I don't always find myself in the descriptions that are made of people of our ages," confides this trader. The four experts hope to bring their changes into the law on old age and autonomy, which should be presented in the summer of 2020 in the Council of Ministers.
