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Health crisis in nursing homes: psychological support for staff ready to "crack"

2021-01-22T19:01:28.838Z


In 2020 in Ile-de-France, mortality jumped 55% in establishments for dependent elderly people. Since the summer, Doctors without


The round of hearses in the garden, the bodies locked in body bags, the impossible sound of the coffin being sealed.

"We did not know where we were going", confides Morgane, ten months later, her voice still moved.

This 25-year-old young woman with a piercing gaze had barely two months of seniority in her post of educational and social support (AES), when the Covid surge hit the Jardin des Roses, an associative Ehpad of Adef Residences, in Villecresnes (Val-de-Marne).

Out of nearly 80 residents, 17 died.

Impossible to comb their hair, to dress them in their finest clothes, for a last farewell.

They left in tears and silence.

“You weren't going to tell your home when you

got

home:

Today I put three corpses in a bag,

” says Marilyne, 52, gerontology care assistant.

At the Jardin des Roses, we manage to put words into this sanitary tsunami.

This is happening behind closed doors in support groups organized by Médecins sans frontières (MSF).

The NGO quickly understood that these nursing homes, on the front line, were on the verge of implosion.

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To date, there are 30% of deaths linked to Covid in nursing homes.

The virus did not spare any of the 706 nursing homes in Ile-de-France (60,000 residents and 40,000 staff), where with 9,049 deaths recorded between March and December, mortality jumped 55% compared to the same period in 2019 . “In April, nursing homes were the place where there was the highest death rate.

The families were doing badly, the staff was crying, the directors were on the verge of breaking down, ”recalls Marie Thomas, a psychologist who led the interventions in 39 nursing homes in the Ile-de-France region.

MSF's bet: to support the staff, and by extension, the morale of residents and families.

It was François Fauriaux, a young coordinating nurse, who had the idea.

Its team is made up of around forty incumbents, all women, with salaries hovering around 1,250 euros and the minimum wage for life assistants, who represent half of the staff.

He was however convinced that "the Covid would not [return]" to the Jardin des Roses.

“And the first case happened, with a death two days later in the hospital,” he recalls.

Then it went very quickly, two, three, four, ten ... "The Covid took up residence in the protected unit, where disoriented residents live," who do not have the discernment to understand confinement ".

The instructions of the association, which manages 30 establishments, half of which are in Ile-de-France, is clear: residents are not forcibly kept in their rooms.

"I couldn't even talk to my family"

So the confinement was done by unit, and the employees no longer crossed paths.

“It was anxious, but no one complained, they were warriors.

Without them, the establishment does not turn, ”repeats the coordinator.

Management has counted three cases of Covid among staff.

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The employees then launch a group on Messenger.

“I couldn't even talk to my family,” says Aiché, a 31-year-old caregiver.

At first, I hid what was going on from my husband, he was afraid for the children, I preferred to keep it all to myself. "

To the point of losing sleep and appetite.

"I would have blamed myself if something had happened to my house, and I kept feeling guilty about whether the residents were dead because of me."

The director, Savénie Charbonnier, expresses her pride in the teams, and describes a "crazy reality": "We accompanied the families in the garden to present them the dead through the window."

"We made a promise to keep at all costs"

Change job?

Morgane thought about it well.

After all, despite her young age, she has already been a waitress, cashier, secretary… “I broke down after another death, the third of the day, it was the day before my birthday.

But we made a promise with Aiché: keep at all costs unless we had the Covid, ”she said.

Promise kept.

A month later, the pressure fell, "like when you come out of your hiding place after a long cold winter", illustrates François Fauriaux.

New residents have arrived, including a second centenarian.

A wall of memories has been improvised, in the common areas, with the photo of the deceased.

The first day, Aiché cried.

It was in May and the hypothesis of a second wave was already lurking.

The management felt the staff tottering, and asked for MSF's help, for long-term support.

"It feels good to empty your bag"

Morgane thought that one date would be enough.

"But I understood that it was not settled for me", confides the young woman, returned to each meeting.

Aiché explains that two sessions “freed” her.

"It feels good to empty your bag, we are united, that's why we hold on.

If we leave, who will accompany the residents? ”

asks Maryline.

In the common room, always adorned with Christmas colors, a dozen residents are seated around a table, rocked by the melancholy “Song of Tessa” by Mouloudji.

Management is convinced that these support groups were "a place to explode, a decompression valve". "The crisis will leave marks," says Marie Thomas, at MSF. There is work to be done in the long term that the authorities should take into account, the staff work a lot and are not considered. " A bitterness that the non-medical staff expresses bluntly, like Maryline: "The private always goes behind the public, we have the impression of being thrown like socks." The monthly premium of 183 euros is also planned for private nursing homes, assures the Ministry of Health. It should apply retroactively from this January.

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2021-01-22

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