From Besançon, Sister M-Madeleine P., care assistant, in the footsteps of Saint Jeanne Antide: “We have heard the voice of the elderly and the sick.
For the past four years, I have been working at ELIAD, a home care association, in an area near Besançon.
At-home assistance
It is a service for elderly people, often alone, living in the countryside. I visit them in the morning, when they get up, to wash them, dress them and sometimes make them breakfast. The presence of carers is important for them. We are awaited, and people are happy to see us because we are often the only people who come with other carers (spouse, children) who come to clean and prepare meals. When the toilet is too difficult, we do it together. Our presence reassures them and restores their confidence.
The sector is quite large, so much so that we can cover up to seventy kilometres in the morning. But the countryside is pleasant and our entertainment is the herds of cows and the animals that are increasingly coming out of the woods.
In the team where I work, there is a great deal of mutual support with my colleagues: 3 nursing assistants who are friendly.
At the Day Centre
What binds us together is meeting up twice a week at the day centre: at 8.30am, we set off in the ELIAD minibus to pick people up from their homes; the journey takes an hour and a half, and we bring them to the centre for the day. The purpose of the welcome is also to relieve the carers. After coffee, we read the newspaper. We talk about the menu. Then we play games and do various activities to stimulate their knowledge, memory and mobility.
Some people participate well in the activities, but others hardly at all; because Alzheimer’s disease makes them increasingly dependent. They can no longer speak, no longer express their requests, can no longer understand the smallest things to do in everyday life; we have to anticipate for them. This requires a lot of attention on our part.
Some days are very busy because we have to pay attention to everyone, help them to eat, play for them when they can no longer do so, etc.
We have to be versatile and take care of everything: preparing the food that is delivered to us, cleaning, shopping if necessary. We have a budget provided by the association to buy games, buy craft materials, decorate the day centre, supplement meals if necessary, organise small parties, etc.
Our team is dynamic, motivated and always ready to do whatever it takes to help people.
And now, a new mission
I will be working in this sector until the end of March, when I retire from my professional career. I have found great joy in this mission. The Lord has blessed me during these past few years, and I have been able to fully live out my vocation as a Sister of Charity.
And now I will soon be leaving for Italy for a new mission with migrants, which I am fully looking forward to.
The Lord and Saint Jeanne-Antide will be with me“.
Sister M-Madeleine, Besançon
