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Since September, around fifteen residents of the Village Landais Alzheimer Henri Emmanuelli have been enjoying a game of table tennis. A leisure activity that fits in with the innovative philosophy of the Dacquoise facility.

Every Tuesday afternoon, the bouncing music of ping-pong balls resounds merrily in the sports hall of the Village Landais Alzheimer Henri Emmanuelli (VLAHE). Around the two large blue tables, 5 or 6 villagers take it in turns to listen to the advice of Myriam, Brigitte or Christian, members of AS Hossegor Table Tennis. The eyes are focused, but the pleasure is palpable. No-one balked at the exercises on offer, even though Bernadette, a day care resident, found it a little difficult to play with a racket in each hand. When Fred is complimented on the quality of his game, his thin smile and shining eyes say more than his fading words.

Lise Baussin and Fabien Pradal, the Village's occupational therapist and psychomotor therapist, keep a close eye on the tempo of the rotations, to avoid any physical overexertion or excessive waiting.

A member of AS Hossegor Table Tennis for a year and a half, Brigitte Laulom runs the table tennis workshop with team-mate Myriam Seelweger and club president Christian Salgues. Wheelchair-bound since a car accident 6 years ago, she is well placed to talk about the virtues of sport and can testify to the success of the experiment with the villagers: "They didn't enjoy it straight away and, at the start, the nurse had to go and get them. Now they can't wait to come. It's great for them, but it's great for us too".

A fortunate combination of circumstances

The idea of a table tennis workshop was born at the end of 2022 in the mind of Gaëlle Marie-Bailleul, consultant doctor at the Village Landais Alzheimer, after reading a press release from the France Alzheimer association announcing the launch of a scientific study into the benefits of table tennis for people suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Since 2019, a partnership has been in place with the French Federation to develop adapted table tennis sessions supervised by trained sports educators. Feedback from patients and their carers has been very positive, but still needs to be scientifically validated.

At around the same time, Lana Chan, president of the Hong Kong-based Nova Palm foundation, one of whose missions is to bring sport, music and the arts within the reach of the most disadvantaged, was visiting the Village Landais Alzheimer in the company of Françoise Béguin, head of the French branch. It just so happened that the two women regularly "hit the ball" at AS Hossegor Table Tennis. The link was quickly made with Christian Salgues, the club's president, but above all Ping Santé's trainer and educator. In October 2022, he attended the "Taking the disease in reverse" conference organised by France Alzheimer and the French Table Tennis Federation

Things got off to a flying start and Ping'alzheimer sessions began at the end of September 2023. They were held weekly, attracting a total of around fifteen enthusiasts. When the weather was fine, the tables were moved outside, under the arcades of the Bastide, attracting the curious and creating an additional distraction. "We do 2 one-hour sessions with 2 groups of 5 or 6 people, who are put together according to their affinities and their way of communicating, so that everyone can participate calmly", explains Fabien Pradal, the VLAHE psychomotrician, who emphasises the "interesting exchanges" between the Village professionals and the table tennis coaches.

"At the beginning, I couldn't pass two balls. Now I'm much more at ease. It gives me more skill, attention and concentration," says Brigitte, who would happily play for longer. Fabien Pradal confirms this impression: "It frees something up. People express themselves more easily in their movements as well as in their verbal and non-verbal communications, with a nod or a smile".

Notable progress

For Dr Marie-Bailleul, the workshop has another virtue: "What I wanted was to enable the carers - nurses, occupational therapists, psychomotor therapists - to create a space where they could meet the villagers in a different way. It's part of our philosophy to look at illness in a different way".