“Aging well”, while waiting for a major law on autonomy.
Deputies and senators agreed on Tuesday on a range of measures for the elderly, reaching a compromise on a bill in Parliament.
After a long parliamentary journey, which began almost a year ago, the text "taking measures to build a society of healthy aging in France", supported by the government, will be able to be definitively adopted after a final vote of the two chambers, the March 19 in the Assembly and March 27 in the Senate.
A joint committee (CMP) bringing together seven deputies and seven senators has indeed adopted a compromise text, indicated Renaissance MP Annie Vidal, rapporteur to the Assembly on this text.
“We are providing clear and pragmatic answers with this bill,” she welcomed, nevertheless still affirming “to wait for a bill from the government to determine the objectives and financing of the old age sector”.
📣 I am very happy with the positive conclusion of this CMP, which should augur a greater ambition, to be implemented in a bill, which I will support with constancy and energy https://t.co/ouddeNNIc1
— Annie Vidal (@Vidal7602) March 12, 2024
“To succeed in the residential shift, improve accommodation conditions in nursing homes (…) deeper reforms and reinforced resources are necessary,” added Les Républicains senator Philippe Mouiller in a press release.
This major law on autonomy, promised by the executive but repeatedly postponed, must outline the contours of multi-year programming for the sector.
But its timetable remains very uncertain.
The proposed law on aging well itself refers to this multi-year law by requiring the government to present it to Parliament before the end of 2024.
The right to visit nursing homes enshrined in law
Deputies and senators agreed on various key measures in the text, such as the creation of a professional card to facilitate recognition of the work of home workers, or the inclusion in law of the right to visit nursing homes, after the trauma many families during the Covid-19 crisis.
A measure relatively debated in both chambers, the right for residents in nursing homes to welcome their pet landed on a compromise version, between the “enforceable” right voted by the Assembly and the optional measure voted by the Senate.
“We open this possibility but under conditions set by decree, such as on the size of the animals,” explained Annie Vidal, also assuring that the resident “must be able to manage the animal”.
The final text also provides for the creation of a departmental autonomy service, a “one-stop shop” to decompartmentalise” policies in favor of the elderly and people with disabilities, and establishes a departmental body for reporting cases of mistreatment.
Suppressed by the senators, the creation of a national conference of autonomy was reestablished by the CMP with certain adjustments, indicated Annie Vidal.