The government unveils its anti-fall plan for the elderly

This plan aims to reduce fatal or disabling falls by 20% among people aged 65 and over by 2024. The national fall prevention plan is based on five main areas:

• know how to identify the risks of falls and alert;
• arrange your accommodation to avoid the risk of falls;
• technical mobility aids made for everyone;
• physical activity, the best weapon against hair loss;
• remote assistance for all.

Prevention and awareness tools

This plan involves informing and raising awareness among all audiences, the elderly, caregivers, professionals, elected officials and civil society about the risks of falls and their consequences: by fighting against the trivialization of falls, denial or fear of falling , the risk of falling and its fatal consequences are reduced.

The fall of the elderly must be replaced as a major public health problem. The Ministries of Solidarity and Health and the Delegate Ministry in charge of Autonomy will highlight actions contributing to the desire to reduce falls, whether local initiatives or means of facilitating access to information and processing requests as one-stop shops that will make life easier for French people.

A geolocated map will also be developed so that any citizen (beneficiaries, professionals or caregivers) can identify the services and actions near their home contributing to the reduction of falls.

Five presidents of the construction industry react

In a press release, Yves Daniélou, President AFISB (French Association of Bathroom Industries), Jean-Christophe Repon, President CAPEB (Confederation of Crafts and Small Building Companies), José Prétot, President FDME-FNAS ( Federation of Electrical Equipment Distributors French Federation of Traders in Sanitary Appliances, Heating, Air Conditioning and Pipes), Emmanuel Gravier, President FFIE (French Federation of Electrical Integrators) and Benoît Coquart, President IGNES (Industrialists of electrical and digital building solutions) declare : "A real major health and economic problem, falls are the leading cause of death among people over 65. Every year, 2 million people over 65 are victims of accidental falls, resulting in more than 130 hospitalizations and 000 deaths.

This is the reason why, first of all, we would like to salute the government's desire to take the lead and set out a national action plan to fight against falls among the elderly by setting itself the objective of reducing 20% by 2024.

However, as building professionals, we deeply regret that we were not consulted well in advance of the release of this campaign. We are firmly convinced that it is thanks to a work in total synergy between the actors of the building and medico-social sectors that the government can hope to achieve its quantified objectives and, more broadly, to succeed in a real adaptation of housing for seniors.

Our qualified companies are in daily contact with this fragile public and they are entitled to offer solutions which make it possible to prevent falls, to detect them and also to capture the times of inactivity, harbingers of the progress of the loss of 'autonomy.

We would like to remind you that there is real French know-how carried by French companies with proven skills, often valued and praised by the Ministry of the Economy. Moreover, although all these solutions sometimes seem simple, they require the intervention of qualified professionals in terms of prescription and installation, so that they fully perform their role with a guarantee of durability, safety and maintenance in the time.

We also note that the fall prevention plan, supported by the Ministry of Health, only provides information on the financing possibilities offered by social security or local aid. Why not go all the way with this information process, by offering an overview of existing public aid and in particular the autonomy tax credit?

In addition, indicating an idea of ​​the cost of solutions is interesting insofar as it is intended to deliver realistic information as to the real costs (products and installation). In addition, it would have been just as essential to accompany this information with a message of vigilance on the quality and implementation of the solutions chosen, as well as to take into account the issues of economic sovereignty. Indeed, these solutions must be able to keep their promise and ensure their preventive or alert role when the time comes, and this over time.

For example, how long will the “25 € luminous path” be in operation? What will be its environmental impact or its possible electrical danger? And how long will it be before this type of system detaches from the wall to itself become the object of a fall? What about a grab bar with a faulty fixing system?

We regret the absence in this plan of solutions such as fall or inactivity sensors which can operate independently of remote assistance, even though they had also been mentioned by the Minister of Solidarity and Health Olivier Véran on the occasion of the closing of the Ségur de la Santé in July 2020. And although we welcome the attention paid to remote assistance devices, we are surprised to see a brand mentioned in the press kit.

We are also surprised by the absence in this plan of more comprehensive solutions for adapting the bathroom and sanitary facilities, such as the installation of suspended toilets or a secure and suitable shower area to replace bathtubs.

We therefore regret that, as it stands, this fall protection plan, which certainly started with good intentions, was ultimately only perceived from a social angle.

We hope that future work around the MaPrimeAdapt' system will indeed be the result of collaborative work involving all stakeholders in the health and building sectors, capable of contributing their respective expertise, including on the environmental level. and economic, to guarantee the achievement of a housing stock adapted to the elderly and effectively promote aging well at home.