One of the main particularities of medicalized retirement homes, compared to conventional retirement homes, is that these establishments mainly accommodate dependent elderly people who need help with daily activities and whose state of health requires more or less heavy specific care. Accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) are, for example, part of the category of nursing homes.
Unlike a "classic" retirement home, a medicalized retirement home aims to exclusively accommodate dependent elderly people who can no longer, for health and safety reasons, remain living in their home. .
These establishments are indeed organized to support and help their residents in carrying out all the acts of daily life. In addition, as their name suggests, nursing homes also provide the necessary medical or paramedical care to each elderly person they welcome.
The term "medicalized retirement home" actually includes several types of establishments for seniors who have lost their autonomy.
Accommodation establishments for dependent elderly people (Ehpad) thus fall into the category of nursing homes. It is even the new name for nursing homes in most cases. These establishments welcome seniors over the age of 60 who need help with acts of daily living and who require special medical or paramedical care. Ehpad residents can be accommodated permanently or temporarily, full-time or part-time.
These nursing homes are required to provide certain types of services:the administrative management of the elderly who reside there, hotel accommodation (provision of a room, maintenance, access to television and other communication, etc.), a catering and laundry service for residents' laundry, and the organization of events inside and outside the nursing home.
Within the category of nursing homes are also long-term care facilities (often referred to as USLDs). They take care of elderly people who are even more dependent than those accommodated in nursing homes, seniors who need specific medical care and constant monitoring. USLD residents generally enter this type of nursing home following hospitalization.
This is why long-term care facilities are always attached to a hospital facility.
Some nursing homes, and in particular Ehapds, are also specialized in the care of elderly people suffering from Alzheimer's disease, for example, and have a specific unit, called a reinforced accommodation unit (UHR), for these dependent seniors suffering from this neurodegenerative disease or other related ones.
Nursing homes, including nursing homes in particular, are establishments equipped to accommodate elderly residents with loss of autonomy. They are the subject of an agreement lasting a minimum of 5 years signed with the departmental council and the Regional Health Agency (ARS) – or the prefect – which commits them to respect very specific standards concerning the reception and medical care, in particular for dependent elderly people.
In addition to the fact that this agreement ensures compliance with and application of specific rules by nursing homes vis-à-vis their residents, this institutional framework also serves as a sort of label which obliges these establishments to apply stays accessible to the greatest number, in any case which does not exceed the average prices observed in all the establishments which welcome dependent elderly people.
A nursing home is organized to receive dependent elderly people who need specific care.
To this end, this type of establishment has a team of carers specialized in the care of these seniors.
This team is at least made up of a coordinating doctor, a nursing professional with a state diploma, nursing assistants, medico-psychological assistants (AMP), educational and social support staff, as well as psycho-educational personal.
