2023-11-24 17:29:30
Published on Nov 24, 2023 at 4:29 p.m.
Suspended since mid-April, the examination of the Macronist bill on “aging well” was completed Thursday evening in the Assembly. Despite criticism from the opposition, but also from certain members of the presidential majority, the deputies largely adopted the text at first reading by 116 votes to 31.
However, the ambition of this bill remains limited. It appears as a prelude to a broader text which could be adopted by the end of 2024. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said she would like a text of programming law on old age, eagerly awaited but abandoned during the previous five-year term, “can be presented by the summer”, with adoption in the second half of 2024. In the meantime, an overview of the main measures voted on in the Assembly.
· Fight against the isolation of the elderly
One of the main components of this bill aims to prevent the loss of autonomy of elderly people. It provides in particular for the creation of a National Conference of Autonomy. This new state body will have the mission of piloting the prevention policy and detailing its functions. It will be able to rely on a “national evidence center for the prevention of loss of autonomy and gerontological resources”. The latter will have the role of identifying aids or new technologies favoring “home support” in particular.
Article 2 also provides for allowing social and health services to have easier access to data, collected by mayors for example, for “the identification of elderly people or people with disabilities who are isolated”. According to Drees, more than 500,000 people never see their friends or family.
A measure, voted by the Assembly before the examination of the text was interrupted, also creates a status of “replacement” curator or guardian, to prevent a vulnerable person from finding themselves isolated in the event of the death of their loved one. tutor. The Assembly also voted in favor of the creation of a one-stop shop for autonomy at the department level, with the stated objective of simplifying the process for people losing their autonomy.
The first examination of the text in July also allowed the adoption of an article which reaffirms the right for a person residing in a medical or medico-social establishment to receive visits. A report submitted to the government recommended the addition of this measure in the proposed law, after the trauma of many families during the Covid-19 crisis faced with the impossibility of going to see their loved ones.
· Act against mistreatment
The bill also aims to improve the fight against mistreatment. The text thus provides for the creation of a body for collecting and processing alerts of mistreatment against vulnerable adults. After carrying out an investigation, this body may in particular make a report to the judicial authority.
During the debates, the deputies also approved a government amendment to “obligate” private nursing homes to devote a fraction of their profits to improving the “well-being” of their residents – a measure echoing the Orpea scandal. They also validated, at the suggestion of LR, the introduction of new indicators to evaluate nursing homes, such as the number of weekly showers, the duration of meals, the nutritional state of residents or the number of individual protections per resident.
· Encourage home help
Nearly 80% of French people want to age in place. To achieve this wish, the bill plans to help home help professionals. The text thus provides for the creation, without experimentation and no later than January 1, 2025, of a professional card intended for professionals working in the homes of elderly people and people with disabilities.
This card aims to facilitate their daily practice. Annual financial assistance is also planned for departments supporting the mobility of home help professionals.
· Elimination of the obligation of maintenance for grandchildren
Grandchildren should no longer be obliged to contribute financially to their grandparent’s care in a nursing home. Monday evening, the deputies adopted the elimination of the “support obligation” which falls on them if one of their elders cannot pay for their accommodation in a nursing home without social assistance.
“We regularly have people who refuse to enter nursing homes, saying: ‘If tomorrow you have to seek support from my grandchildren, I prefer to give up a place,’” declared the Minister of Solidarity and Families, Aurore Bank.
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