Becoming a volunteer in a retirement home, a person often called a "visitor", helps to break the isolation of the elderly who, even if they are surrounded by a team in their residence, suffer from not having a social bond if they have no family or friends who can visit them regularly. Trained to listen to seniors in this case, these volunteers in retirement homes help to keep them psychologically fit and therefore in good health in general.
Many older people suffer from isolation. According to the Ministry of Solidarity and Health, nearly a quarter of people over the age of 75, or around 5 million people, are affected in France. The isolation of seniors can be more or less important. When it is serious, we speak of social isolation, that is to say a situation when "a person who, due to relations that are lastingly insufficient in their number or quality, is in a situation of suffering and danger", a definition determined by the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE).
Elderly people who live alone at home suffer the most from isolation. But this phenomenon also affects those who live in a retirement home, often disabled, dependent or losing their autonomy, despite the group social life that is organized there and the staff who surround them on a daily basis.
A large number of seniors in nursing homes, in fact, do not have family or friends to come and visit them. Either because these relatives do not exist, or because they are geographically far away. For these elderly people, loneliness can have serious consequences on their morale, but also on their physical health.
Becoming a volunteer in a retirement home, a long-stay hospital unit (USLD), an accommodation facility for dependent elderly people (EHPAD) or a specific Alzheimer's unit means first of all bringing a presence and comfort to these seniors.
These voluntary interventions in retirement homes help to recognize and listen to the elderly and thus allow them to remain actors in their lives, to continue to have good self-esteem since people are interested in they.
With these volunteers who intervene in retirement homes to discuss, practice activities, walk with seniors, help them in certain procedures, the elderly in retirement homes can establish relationships of which they are most often deprived, which, over time, can become strong.
The French are very keen on voluntary action. According to the Ministry of Health, they would be 20 million to want to engage in this way. And the possibilities of working in retirement homes, in particular to allow the elderly to maintain social ties, are also very numerous.
People who wish to volunteer with the elderly who live in a retirement home have many possibilities to make their action a reality.
It is possible first of all to contact the town hall or the Communal Center for Social Action (CCAS), whose role is to support and put the elderly in contact with the local social services that can be provided to them. useful, of his commune.
The local information points, that is to say the local reception desks whose mission is to inform the elderly and their relatives, often called the local center for information and gerontological coordination (CLIC) or support and respite platforms, more specifically designed to meet the needs of carers, also have the possibility of connecting volunteers and local retirement homes who wish to provide their residents with such a service.
To become a volunteer in a retirement home, it is also possible to join structures or the very many social, charitable or humanitarian associations whose missions are in particular to break the isolation of the elderly. Thus, for example, the Red Cross or the Little Brothers of the Poor, in particular, work to connect volunteers and seniors who need a presence at home or in a retirement home.
Similarly, the "National mobilization against the isolation of the elderly (MONALISA)" platform, an alliance created between the public authorities and civil society to build links by activating the social fabric close to the elderly and breaking their loneliness, has structures that can be contacted locally if you wish to become a volunteer with seniors in retirement homes in particular.
Becoming a volunteer in a retirement home implies first of all being motivated to spend time, keep company, communicate with elderly people who are often cut off from reality and the "outside world", and above all to listen to them.
It is also necessary to be available because these visits to these seniors are generally organized several times a week for more or less long durations according to the wishes of the elderly.
Volunteers in retirement homes can also work in some establishments alongside the professional facilitators of these structures and support them in the organization of activities for the elderly.
In general, volunteers in retirement homes must demonstrate interpersonal skills, diplomacy, listening skills and be endowed with a sense of teamwork since they are also in contact with the staff of these structures. .
Many structures and associations specializing in supporting the elderly offer volunteers who wish to work with seniors in retirement homes training for a few hours before taking concrete action.
