SECLUSION OF OLDER PEOPLE
The Monalisa plan (Mobilisation Nationale contre L’Isolement des personnes Agées)
What can be done to respond to the seclusion of the growing number of the elderly, whose number is growing in our societies? If the public authorities propose the creation of jobs (domestic helpers, caregivers) in a significant number, this measure does not consider the person as a whole, because receiving domestic help does not remove the feeling of being isolated. Older people need, like all humanbeings, to be recognized, to see appreciate what they have lived, to be able to express their desires: they need support to age well.
Working to "age well" by joining to the MONALISA plan
This government-led scheme aims to create teams of citizens in cities and rural areas to visit isolated elderly people and meet their personal needs.
In January 2016, members of the Christian Retirees Movement (MCR) in the parish of Etables in Brittany, wanted to create a team "Monalisa". The team now has 8 volunteers, not all Christian, for around twenty people visited. Within the Monalisa team, there is no room for spirituality because not all volunteers are Christians. On the other hand, Christian volunteers visiting Christian seniors can speak faith and pray.
The problem the team faced was the identification of isolated individuals. The team finally chose to interview the caregivers (nurses, doctors, pharmacies, etc.). This was the real start that we combined with press conferences to introduce Monalisa and call volunteers.
Meetings of the heart....
The first encounters are important, they are those where contact is made, by the look, the smile, an available attitude. It is a moment that tells the Other that if I am there, it is only for him... Liliane couldn't believe that this time of visit was "free", she had stayed on the idea that all service is paid for...
The "grannies" visited feel the almost immediate need to tell their lives. We have the feeling that to enter into their intimacy, into the mystery of their lives... in a silent and respectful listening punctuated by our nods, signs of a recognition of a busy life, accomplished... a life made up of exceptional journeys, stories of love but also disappointments, sufferings, regrets, financial difficulties...
Listening in the accompaniment of isolated elderly people is essential because it is these moments that create the bond. These people are mostly widows, widowers, singles or without children in their immediate vicinity. Therese left her husband while he was cheating on her, and her 6 children. Today, alone, she can count on no one. Francine, 101 years old, lives in a residence. Only a Parisian son comes to see her from time to time. His two other children, very ill, live on the other side of France. Marie-Thérèse, childless, suffers from multi-pathologies, needs to be surrounded by a volunteer who will take the time to listen to her. Carmen and Liliane don't often see their children who stay in Paris. Etc...., etc...
Bringing to life the bond created by the first visits... developing different activities according to the needs or desires of the people visited. For 101-year-old Francine, it is the reading of novels chosen together, from time to time an appointment at the hair salon located at the bottom of the residence; Therese loves to play board games. This is how Nicole, the volunteer became an expert in the belote.... Some memories are brought back to Thérèse's mind when she sees Nicole knitting, an opportunity for her to evoke with emotion the sweaters they knitted every winter for her children that she no longer sees, a way to value what she lived as Mom... For Claudie who goes on her 100 years, unbeatable on complicated vocabulary, these are endless scrabble games with Josiane the volunteer. For Pierre, hemiplegic and aphasic, it is staying with him 1 hour or 2 to give time to his spouse for medical appointments or shopping. For Janine,what soothes her is the hand massage...
Collective projects have been set up: animation on an anniversary, collection of Francine's life course (100 years)...
A diocesan partnership project between the Christian Movement of Retirees (MCR) and the HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCIES takes shape to visit either, at home after hospitalizations of elderly people living alone, or at EPHAD or in hospital. An ethical charter will be written that takes more into account the spiritual dimension. This project is supported by the 56 teams of the diocesan MCR, anxious to act for the common good by committing themselves to respect the dignity of the elderly.
CONCLUSION - Father Joseph Wrezinski wrote in one of his books that what is worse for a man "is to know how to count for nothing, to the point where even suffering is forgotten." This is what many isolated elderly people live in silence... Everyone can do something!! ...
You can't change the world, but you can change your little piece of the world yourself... Changing one's own little world, isn't it highlight the wealth of the elderly and foster a more humane living together?
Rosita Carpier