“In France, the EHPAD has been based on a very industrial model of organisation for the last forty or fifty years, and the human approach has been eroded over time. The aim is to put the individual back at the heart of the organisation, to break the industrial mould and organise the work to suit the person and not the other way round,” says Ladislas de Cours, whom we interviewed in his capacity as Director South, SGMR Les Opalines.
The home EHPAD is undergoing a major transformation, and the organisation and coordination of everyone involved must be embodied in structures. Through a call for projects, Ladislas de Cours is trying to create a new position in the home care sector, known as the Autonomy Advisor.

“As part of this transformation of the EHPAD, Les Opalines also wants to segment their offer with senior housing and diversify their activities towards the home.
In this context and thanks to a call for projects, coordinated by Telegrafik, won in the Nîmes area with the help of various players such as the SSR Egregore, Ladislas de Cours Saint-Gervasy wishes to give life to this notion of EHPAD outside the walls, thanks to the involvement of the director of Nimes Les Oliviers, Anthony Billard, its coordinating doctor, its set of physical therapists but also its autonomy advisor, Manon Combet, specially recruited for this occasion.”

The need for a one-stop shop, and a centralising, coordinating entity

“We’ve been talking about the Home EHPAD for a few years now, there have been many projects throughout the region, but the problem was generally a lack of organisation and the difficulty of managing several people: what’s needed is a central coordinator. The success of this project will depend on the essential function of the Autonomy Advisor, who will bring the call for projects to life, get the teams on board, lead and follow up, and measure effectiveness levels.”
“And in general, in all the projects we saw, there was an aggregation of partners but there was a lack of an overarching, neutral body capable of bringing it all to life.
So, the challenge today is this Autonomy Advisor who I think will let us make this call for projects a success and a reality in our EHPADs.”

Historically, the need for this coordinating role has been proved. Indeed, some structures have adopted it to make good the lack, which he points out:

“For families, when the risk arises, they’re lost, they need a one-stop shop for information. There are CLICs (local information and coordination centres), now known as MAIAs (Independence Integration Action Method), which are designed as one-stop shops. Initially, their vocation was to deal with problems related to cognitive disorders and neuro-degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, but they are currently broadening their scope. These centres provide answers to people about services available and possible funding.

However, this doesn’t always work perfectly. So, we thought that our Autonomy Advisor would help us to help families in distress to understand how our sector of activity is structured and what services and assistance they can have; either from the Departmental Council, or from their municipality, or their pension fund or their mutual insurance company.”