A commitment 365 days a week, a full -fledged “job”, without any respite or almost. It is the reality of the daily life of caregivers, who often make a cross on their personal activities and their social life, sometimes to the detriment of their health, to support a loved one in loss of autonomy, because of his age, illness or disability. Between 9 and 11 million French people thus put their own life aside to support a husband, child or an elderly parent. And among them, 76% do not benefit from any support solutionAccording to a study by Agirc-Arrco, the supplementary pension plan for private employees.
However, there are many needs: finding home help (66%) or respite solutions (62%), finance a dependent rest (61%), be supported in their steps (59%) and have wellness activities to recharge their batteries (52%) are among their main requests. So many subjects on which caregivers can be referred, and obtain psychological or financial support, as explained by Frédérique Decherf. While National caregiver day takes place this Monday, October 6the director of Agirc-Arrco social action presents the numerous information and guidance solutions for these audiences too often left to themselves.
How does Agirc-Arrco work to support caregivers?
Frédérique Decherf: Agirc-Arrco is the compulsory pension plan for all private employees. We have two professions. Retirement, first of all, since we receive contributions and we pay pensions. But social action also, through support and prevention services, for assets and the elderly.
The first of the priority orientations of AGIRC-Arrco is that of the transition to retirement and the support of the elderly. The second concerns caregivers and people in fragility. This helping priority has existed since 1993 : So it’s been a long time since we realized to help people to age in good conditions, we must also help people around them.
According to your latest study, one in two caregivers does not know where to go to be accompanied. Is Agirc-Arrco identified in this role?
Half of the caregivers, who are between 9 and 11 million in France, are indeed lost. And it would be good for Agirc-Arrco social action to be a little better known, because, by nature, we have a mission of general interest. About 97% of the French population has contributed or contributed to the Agirc-Arrco regime. Our action perimeter is therefore very wide and our website Mabousssoidants.fr is open to the entire population.
But yes, that’s obvious: caregivers are “lost”. There is a lot of information everywhere and they find it difficult to navigate. For a First level of global information When we are comfortable on digital, we recommend the maboussaidants.fr site to have a first vision of what exists around you: a respite service to blow a little, a mobility service if you need to find a mode of transport for an elderly person …
If you cannot find the information that concerns you, we have set up a telephone service, “Listening, advice and orientation”, which allows you to take the time and carry out an inventory of your situation and your needs. Then, we are oriented to legal aid and services specific to our regime.
Doesn’t one of the main problems lie in the fact that many caregivers ignore themselves?
To understand what we have access, we must indeed succeed in doing the process of feeling helpful. You have to be able to ask yourself the question: “The care that I bring to my child with a disability or my parent is helping?” It is imperative to realize that at a certain stage, it encroaches so much on your own life that theWe need to talk about it, to be accompanied. Organize medical appointments, manage the administrative … is almost a full-time job.
Once you have become aware of your status, you have to talk to someone who understands what you experience. This is the reason why we set up the “listening, support” service, to be able to exchange, face -to -face or by phone, with someone who has experienced a similar situation. Caregivers need to talk about it, say what they are going through and know that someone understands them, to breathe, speak, empty their bag, get advice and feedback.
“Getting aware of being helping is accepting to take care of yourself”
Listening is not always enough. Are solutions proposed if the load becomes too heavy?
Sometimes caregivers can no longer and are in a situation of exhaustion. In these cases, the Agirc-Arrco regime offers respite services. This can be half a day for the caregiver to blow, his parent is then taken care of in a specialized establishment. It can also be a little longer respite stays, with the assurance that the assisted person remains in a comfortable situation.
We are very attentive to proposing solutions that take care of both the help and the caregiver. We try to Develop vacation stays helping/helpedeven if there are few structures to be able to organize this to date. We also have Relaxation or Baluchoning formulas, which allow trained professionals to come to your home, for four days in a row, which allows caregiver to leave.
Are these services entirely funded by Agirc-Arrco?
Most mostly, yes, they are funded by the regime. Some of them, at the margin, as for financial aid, are examined according to the caregiver situation and subject to eligibility criteria. We take into account family composition and income in particular. Each year, since 1993, We finance between 20 and 25 million servicesand support around two million people, whether by communication of information or the financing of specific services.
Despite the means deployed, more than three in four caregivers are not accompanied. How to improve the situation?
With the National Day of Caregivers, our goal is to promote the role of Agirc-Arrco but above all to make a number of people aware of caregivers. To become aware of it is to accept to take care of yourself, to be even better in the relationship with the other.
We have a lot of testimonials from people who are completely cracking. Especially women, who must take care of their husband with Alzheimer’s disease, very complicated neurodegenerative pathologies to manage on a daily basis. Contacting your AGIRC-Arrco pension fund is first to find a listening, to be able to confide in your situation and be helped, to set up a file for the personalized autonomy allowance (APA) for example, or obtain some advice that may be enough. Our message is that family solidarity goes up to a certain level, but it is imperative to avoid forgetting.
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