2024-09-15 04:30:05
Seen from the outside, with its red brick facade, the Next House has nothing to envy of the other beautiful residences on Boulevard Gambetta, in Tourcoing, in the North. These buildings testify to the former strength of its textile economy, which has been damaged under international attacks and immigration. A small panel “In our place” welcome and some photos hanging on the wall testify to the work that had to be done to restore the place.
It is half past eight on this June morning and the large breakfast table is already set in the dining room, with bay windows overlooking the garden. In the living room, Marine (residents do not want to give their last names), 38, is immersed in a word search magazine. One of the daily pleasures of this woman who wants to become a librarian. From his seat in the living room, Arnaud, 65 years old, the oldest of the place, charmed him about his passion for words, which he shared with him, who loved to read a lot.
At first glance, a family home like many others, with its small frames on the sideboard showing smiles and birthday cakes, its green plants and its sweet rugs on the big sofas. But the house next door is special: the nine tenants who live there suffer from stable mental disorders but cannot live alone. Far from the atmosphere of a mental hospital or nursing home.
The history of innovation and unique opportunity in France goes back fifteen years. In the great city of Lille, many people are looking to create a non-drug environment capable of welcoming a relative – brother, sister, child – suffering from psychopathology in complete safety and in a warm environment. “It is about finding a satisfactory solution for patients who do not have a place in a mental hospital but who are not able to live independently”, explained Caroline Bonduelle, Arnaud’s sister. Together, in 2008, they created the Fraternative group.
A painful journey
Often, each family has endured painful, sometimes chaotic journeys, including hospitalization in very distant hospitals, sometimes at the other end of France. As one mother, who wished to remain anonymous, pointed out: “We tried the nursing home, it’s not good, my son is changing. There is a choice of host families, especially in Pas-de-Calais, but we look for more space in the city, with opportunities for activities and social life. We can’t see. The only option left was to return home after the hospital, but that would have required me to stop working. Financially, it is impossible. »
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