For its third edition, the “Summit of the Common Good” brings together a unique panel of experts on June 1, 2 and 2 in Toulouse. Interview with Sylvain Rabuel, president of DomusVi on the aging of the population.
How is the service for seniors a lever for the territories?
Our medical residences (Ehpad) and all their range of services are an opportunity for each territory. They are responses to the essential needs of our fellow citizens in terms of aging, not only for those who live there but also for the surrounding community. This is how the residential shift will be successful. In the future, the services of our residences will have to be accessible to elderly people living at home to come and have lunch or receive treatment. Our nursing homes are also places that create “social ties” for all the communities in and around them: residents who live there and their families, professionals who work there and their families. To corporate social responsibility (CSR), which traditionally concerns the environmental, social and societal aspects, we add, at DomusVi, a T, for territorial responsibility, as the anchoring in each territory is important.
In Occitania, for example, how many establishments do you have?
We are very present in Occitania with twenty medical residences and one independent, non-medical residence. We offer ten medicalized residences in Haute Garonne, Toulouse and in the surrounding area of Toulouse, one medicalized residence in the Tarn, three in the Gard, five in the Hérault, one in the Pyrénées Orientales.
We also have five home help and nursing care agencies in Toulouse, Albi, Montpellier, Nîmes and Perpignan, i.e. more than 1,000 DomusVi professionals serving the elderly and their families throughout the region.
Yet the evolution of the business is decided at group level…
No, our compass is and will remain to leave the greatest autonomy to each of our teams of professionals where they work and to practice the greatest decentralization of the company. I often say that there is not one DomusVi company but nearly 600, which is as many as the number of establishments and agencies for home help and nursing care that we offer. Each of these units is responsible for defining its own project for establishment, life and care and autonomy so that it is most in line with the needs of its territory and local pool of professionals.
For example, in Toulouse, you innovated by installing a crèche in a retirement home…
Yes indeed. The Henri IV residence team has decided to change its establishment project towards intergenerational support. On the occasion of the new reconstruction of the establishment in the new district of Montaudran, the residence will host an intergenerational micro-nursery from the company Tom & Josette. Both very young children and residents will benefit from mutual enrichment on a daily basis. Our employees who are parents and their children will also be able to benefit from it.