FILE. In Caselles, in Bozouls: “It's a disaster scenario that is looming for nursing homes, the system is going to explode”

Des personnes de plus en plus dépendantes, qui demandent plus de personnels. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

MESD20240926F0 Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

Staff represent 70% of the establishment's budget, which is in deficit. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

“We are short of two full-time equivalents per resident,” says director Pierre Roux. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

Group workshops are preferred, individual support is rarer. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

What does the health world expect from the new government?? The Les Caselles nursing home in Bozouls is facing the same difficulties as those involved in the elderly sector: an unbalanced budget, a staff shortage, and the inaction of public authorities.

This Thursday, September 25, while the Green senator Anne Souyris submits yet another report with a "extremely worrying report" on the "finances" and the "economic model"  of nursing homes, the Caselles, a non-profit association establishment that accommodates 66 residents in Bozouls, in the North Aveyron, makes the same observation.

On one side, hundreds of pages, on the other, the words of staff and a management that still wants to believe in it: Sophie Calmettes, facilitator, Camille Coeurdacier, occupational therapist, Dominique Perrin, nursing assistant, Eva Moysset, nurse, Colette Ginestet, service agent (ASH), Pierre Roux and Amina Bensetti, directors. “We have to do something, quickly” , worries Colette Ginestet, 53 years old.

“It's a disaster scenario that “is announced, the system is going to explode”, predicted the director.

“Where is the good treatment towards staff and residents ?”

At the entrance, the slogan of the sector's united day of mobilization, the day before, to demand an emergency plan from the government, remained hanging: “The old deserve better”. 40,000 people mobilized.“It's not much compared to the 750,000 people who live in nursing homes, and the same number who are supported at home, but it's already a lot”, rejoices, optimistically, Pierre Roux, brand new national president of the Association of Directors in the Service of the Elderly.

In Caselles, a lack of staff and financial difficulties combine on a daily basis.

“Where is the good treatment towards staff and residents ?" asks Colette Ginestet. That day, the ASH “doubles” the service of a new recruit who, she hopes, "will stay". After the Covid epidemic, there was "a big wave of departures, and not just a few, we did what we could", she says. To the point that she “forgets first names” of transient employees. So, the residents… "They are disturbed, to never see “the same faces”. They do not have to pay the consequences of what is happening today. We do our best, but sometimes we think that we are botching things, and we are exhausted. If we want resources, we need people".

"Reducing cheese portions is out of the question"

Pierre Roux does the math: 39.6 "full-time equivalents" work at Caselles. "We are 13.2 positions short of reaching the ratios recommended since 2011".

The director, Pierre Roux, is also the national president of the AD-PA. Midi Libre – MICHAEL ESDOURRUBAILH

He also explains how the budget is calculated (3.5 million euros for the Caselles, in deficit) with a complex mathematical equation that is partly down to chance and theory.

It leaves little room for maneuver: “70% of the budget is personnel costs, 15% is structural costs, 15% pays for water, electricity, food… We have made every effort possible. If we go further, where we have fewer staff, where we are freezing this winter, we will reduce the portions of cheese… “There's no question of that,” protest Pierre Roux and Amina Bensetti.