The term "close caregiver" designates, according to the law, the spouse, the partner (pacsé or in cohabitation), a relative, a friend, a neighbour, etc., who takes care regularly in a non-professional capacity of a person elderly with loss of autonomy living at home to help them carry out all or part of their daily living activities. The role of caregiver is very demanding and can be very tiring physically and morally. This is why it is very important for those who are in this situation to preserve their health and morale by granting themselves moments of respite or by taking a few days of vacation to take care of themselves. There are also solutions for taking a vacation with a loved one who is losing their autonomy.
For a caregiver, being able to take time for yourself, better still, taking a few days off, is essential to recharge your batteries and be able to continue to take care of a loved one who is losing their autonomy or who is sick on a daily basis. without exhausting yourself physically, but also morally.
But when you devote a large part of your time to taking charge of the acts of daily life of a loved one who has become dependent, it is necessary to organize yourself well beforehand to have the possibility of escaping a little to breathe.
Fortunately, there are solutions available to caregivers to have a third party take over their role during their absence. It is nevertheless advisable to organize well upstream and sufficiently in advance.
During your few days of vacation where you can rest and recharge your batteries, you have the possibility of requesting the temporary reception of your loved one with a loss of autonomy whom you normally take care of at home.
This reception limited in time can first be planned within an establishment which welcomes elderly people such as an accommodation establishment for dependent elderly people (Ehpad), an independent residence or a service residence. In this case, during your few days of vacation, your dependent relative is welcomed in one of these structures in the same way as the other residents, and shares their daily life.
To benefit from the temporary reception of your loved one in an Ehpad, you must, as for a request for accommodation to hold, file with the establishment of your choice - whose contact details you will find on the website of the national portal of information and guidance for elderly people with loss of autonomy and their relatives (pour-les-personnes-agees.gouv.fr) – an admission file. This approach involves the study of the medical file of your loved one with loss of autonomy by the establishment and the realization of a pre-admission visit.
Consequently, the request for temporary accommodation of your loved one in an Ehpad during your absence for a few days of vacation must be started long enough in advance to hope to be able to benefit from this possibility.
For their part, not all independent residences or service residences have places to accommodate residents temporarily. Remember, here too, to ask one of these establishments that interest you well in advance of your few planned vacation days.
During your short absence, your dependent relative can also be temporarily accommodated with foster families. These are people (couples or singles) who welcome elderly people into their homes for a fee and let them share the life of their family. Family caregivers also ensure continuity of care if necessary by organizing the intervention of health professionals in their home.
Family carers are approved by the departmental councils:their accommodation must be decent and adapted to the loss of autonomy and the reception conditions must make it possible to ensure the health, safety, physical and moral well-being of the people received. . These are people who first undergo specific training and the elderly or dependent people they take in (in principle no more than 3 at a time) are subject to social and medico-social monitoring.
If you would like the loved one with a loss of autonomy that you take care of regularly to benefit from a place with family carers, you must, again sufficiently in advance, approach the chosen family with whom you will have to sign a reception contract which will also be sent to the departmental council.
If you don't want your loved one to leave their home during your few days of vacation, you can also have someone replace you temporarily during your absence.
You can thus call on a home help service which will intervene in the home of your dependent loved one to help him in his place in his activities of daily life, during your few days of absence. Home childcare services can even offer you a presence at night if you wish.
You also have the possibility of using what is called "baluchonnage", a service created in Quebec in 1999, which is developing in France, and which designates an innovative respite assistance solution for caregivers.
During your vacation days, a baluchonneur or a baluchonneuse, a professional (carer, home help, caregiver, etc.) trained in supporting people with loss of autonomy and empowered by associations, structures specialized for the elderly or communities, comes to your loved one's home to take your place for a fixed period, 24 hours a day, day and night.
If you wish to use the baluchonnage solution, you can contact the Baluchon France association, which will direct you to one of the fourteen structures of this type that currently exist in the territory.
Taking time out when you are a caregiver is necessary. This break with everyday life, which is often harassing and exhausting for the caregiver, can also be envisaged, despite everything, by taking a few days of vacation with the person with a loss of autonomy who is being cared for.
Indeed, the fact of leaving the daily constraints geographically, but nevertheless remaining alongside your dependent loved one, also allows you to recharge your batteries, to break with habits.
Structures and organizations such as municipal social action centers (CCAS), certain associations for the elderly, supplementary pension organizations, mutual insurance companies, etc., offer suitable stays in lodges, family homes, holiday villages or in hotels for dependent elderly people and their caregivers.
