For the writer and psychoanalyst Marie de Hennezel, the situations of abuse in the EHPADs are to correlate with the age of our Western societies, where old age is presented under its negative aspects.
The Victor Castane independent journalist survey on the “business” private retirement homes comes to emphasize, once again, the situations of abuse endured by the elderly. In 2020, it is the group of accommodation for the elderly dependent (EHPAD) Korian which was targeted by several judicial investigations for the unintentional homicide, endangering the life of others and non-assistance to anyone in danger. . Two years earlier, the National Ethics Advisory Committee (CCNE) on the elderly already alerted situations of “ghettoïsation” and “latent abuse” in these establishments.
For the writer and psychoanalyst Marie de Hennezel, these situations of abuse are to correlate with the age of our Western societies, where old age is presented under its negative aspects. The audience of many books on the old age and end of life believes that “our company has a responsibility to restore a fairer image of aging”. A member of the Autoproclated National Council of Old Age, it calls for the policies to take urgent measures so that the elderly can age “autonomous and healthy”.
The book-survey “The graves”, of the Journalist Victor Castanet, throws a raw light on the indigent living conditions in the EHPAD. How did our relationship with old age evolving in recent years?
These situations can be correlated with the elongation of life expectancy. In a hundred years, we won twenty years of longevity, which modified our perception of old age. In 1970, in his book old age, the Simone philosopher of Beauvoir, then 62, spoke of his age group describing “old men”. At his time, it was like having 80 years today.
The sociological mutations of the French society also explain this sometimes dehumanized care of the elderly. Before, we agonten in his family. But social mobility, the appearance of the nuclear family or the reduction of the size of the lifestyle, with smaller habitats, have made the installation of the elderly at their children more complicated.
These mutations are made almost imperceptibly, so that the current generation, aged 75 and over, never really asked the question of the conditions of its aging. Conversely, my generation, that of the boomers aged 65 to 75, knows that the management of his old age is an issue to which it must take part.
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