They will be essential to the smooth running of the Alzheimer's Village, which is betting on a whole new sort of care for people with the disease. To accompany the 120 future residents and help them to continue as possible in the Dax establishment their life before the disease, 120 volunteers - why not you? - are currently recruited and trained.
On the giant screen of the ESAT Sud Adour Multiservices in Saint-Paul-lès-Dax, where the training of a dozen volunteers takes place, the Alzheimer's Village appears as if it already exists. The short film offers an immersion in the future Bastide, in the households of the four districts, the restaurant, the shops, the media library or the auditorium. In 3D, residents and volunteers walk around, talk, play music or work in the garden.
Awareness days
At the end of the works, at the beginning of 2020, reality will take precedence over digital simulation. Meanwhile, the volunteers who will be entitled to a private visit on site this summer, are trained in essential link of this innovative therapeutic project carried by the Conseil départemental des Landes. Already 85 volunteers have participated in the sensitization days organized in small groups to facilitate exchanges. Before the intervention of the League of Education on the specificities of volunteering, the psychogerontologist Nathalie Bonnet from France Alzheimer gives keys to better understand the development of this neuro-degenerative disease ("forget the word ‘senility’!"), the brain functioning, short or long-term memory, the associated disorders of mood or behavior. "The goal is not to make you a caregiver of course - there will be all the medico-social staff needed on the spot – it is about offering the same chances to any resident arriving in the Village", she insists.
"There is no cure possible by now, In fact we can only bring well-being,so if we can give them a little happiness while strolling,preparing a dessert together or bringing them to the hairdresser, I think it's great.
Claudine Tardivel-Cormier, volunteer
The professional details the basic rules to communicate with residents: "Always begin sentences with ‘yes’", "ask closed questions", "respect the capacity and pace of the person", "do not infantilize","keep calm and humor" ... "Even if the brain does not understand everything", she says "we need to build an emotional framework that is secure enough to always move forward".
Eager to return to volunteering after a rich experience with children in Chile, Alexandre de la Biche also retained from this training the postures that should be adopted.
"It's a very human formation, very interesting. Everyone input its contribution, we meet other volunteers, it's important to create a good atmosphere in the Village. But I learned that this disease couldn’t be cured and it hurts me, testifies Claudine Tardivel-Cormier. In fact we can only bring well-being, so if as a volunteer we can give them a little happiness by strolling, making a dessert together or bringing them to the hairdresser, I think it's great ".
Indeed, the goal for volunteers is "to accompany sick people to please them because fun makes life easier" says Ms. Bonnet. And volonteers have ideas for that, whatever they think come every week, half a day a month or more, since participation to the Village can take different forms.
To be continued…
Want to commit?
For any questions, please contact Florence Laudouar, Animation and Volunteer Coordinator of the Alzheimer's Village: 00 33 +(0)5 58 51 83 59 or florence.laudouar@mlph.fr
