A French nursing team helping the elderly off pills to regain health
The Cher département (county) in central France has one of the lowest ratios of health professionals per capita of any, and some of the worst-affected among the population are the elderly. In face of the problem, the local regional heath agency set up a Mobile Gerontological Team, which visits elderly patients at home to monitor their physical condition and notably to review their medicine prescriptions, which are often over-abundant, misguided, and even dangerous. The project, unique in France, has proved to be highly successful, with patients, weaned off an overconsumption of pills, retrieving a degree of lost independence. Rozenn Le Saint reports.
MarieMarie Tibaudo, 87, walked as fast as possible across the five-metre length of her living room, concentrating so as not to fall. Olivia Westbrook-Fournier, one of two nurses from the Mobile Gerontological Team in the Cher département (county) in central France, was wide-eyed as she timed the exercise. It was as if her patient had pulverised a world record. “Fourteen seconds!” she exclaimed. “Three weeks ago you took 23 seconds. It’s enormous progress, your willpower is paying.”
