This Tuesday at 5 p.m., the France Alzheimer 82 association is organizing a conference on the legal protection of vulnerable people and those with a loss of autonomy at the former college of Montauban.
For 30 years, France Alzheimer 82 has been carrying out preventive actions aimed at people with cognitive disorders and carers, ie people accompanying the sick non-professionally.
Recognized as being of general interest and attached to the France Alzheimer national network, the Tarn-et-Garonnaise branch is particularly dynamic. Among the other associations in the network, it is the one with the highest rate of members in relation to the population (there is one member for 1000 inhabitants). It is also in the top 20 departments with the highest volume of activities.
Indeed, this association offers occasional psychological support for caregivers and people with the disease. Weekly “memory workshops” also take place in Montauban, Castelsarrasin and Moissac, to maintain the cognitive abilities of patients. Led by a pair made up of a psychologist and a volunteer, himself helping, these workshops are fun and help maintain social ties.
“Alzheimer’s disease is irreversible, but we can maintain cognitive links if we practice regular and continuous activity. Hence the importance of these weekly workshops, which take place in a friendly atmosphere” explains Jean Paul Gauthié , president of France Alzheimer 82.
Training for caregivers is also offered to members, to enable them to better understand Alzheimer’s.
This Tuesday’s conference is therefore part of this continuity of massive awareness of Alzheimer’s disease. Provided by a notary, it is an information meeting open to all, presenting the possible legal arrangements to support a person with the disease.
A major challenge
“The figures illustrate us as a dynamic department compared to the others, but we are not boasting, the work is immense. There are 4,800 people in the department with proven cognitive disorders. We are not the only service that exists, and we try to articulate ourselves around the “Helping Partner Pole”, but the stakes are high”.
Jean-Paul Gauthié also testifies to the stagnation since 2012 in the fight against this disease: “From 2000 to 2012, the 3 Alzheimer’s plans have enabled great progress in this area. After two years of silence, the neurodegenerative disease plan was launched until ‘in 2018, but we could already see that the budget had dropped drastically. Since then, not much has happened”.
With its volunteers, 90% helping or ex-helping, the association continues its fight. Vulnerable people corresponding to “any person of whom one feels a loss of discernment, a fragility”, Tuesday’s conference at the old college is therefore not only intended for people with Alzheimer’s and their loved ones.