Two staff members, at night, take care of 90 to 100 residents. Here is one of the shocking revelations from Hella Kherief, caretaker. In 2019, three years before the scandal in nursing homes, this woman already sounded the alarm about the abuse of our elderly.
A few years ago, Hella Kherief was threatened with dismissal for disobedience. Cause ? She asked her supervisors that one of the residents of the nursing home where she works could have a fourth tier (for a maximum of three a day). A scandal that prompted the caregiver to break the silence.
“I think it’s inhumane to tell myself that because of a budget I can’t change a resident who bathes in his urine or in his feces. †
Hella Kherief, caretaker
As a result, Hella Kherief will publish in 2019 The Nursing Home Scandal, a book that lifts the veil on this system that mistreats our elderly. And despite being a whistleblower, she was never really taken seriously by the government. Agnès Buzyn, former Minister of Solidarity and Health, is even said to have turned his back on her at the time by refusing to receive her.
Due to the publication of this spicy book, he lost his job. And despite the support of journalists, such as Élise Lucet, the carer had to fight to find work. On May 11, 2019, she gave herself up on the set of the show We are not not lying† Here’s the full interview:
fragments:
“The quota is limited to three tiers, it seems mind-boggling to me, but it’s the reality. Me, I have a seventeen month old baby and I change her as often as she needs. In Ehpad it is often people who are bedridden and dependent and who need to be changed. †
“This is the case in all nursing homes in France. There are nursing homes where you feel this pressure less, especially in the public because all funds go to all residents, but everywhere there is a cruel lack of equipment and nursing staff. †
“We notice that we always have to go much faster, we wear down our health and we wear down morally the resident who loses psychological self-confidence, feels that he is becoming an object of care when this is not justified.”
So it must have taken three long years before these revelations were finally taken into consideration, not thanks to this woman, but thanks to the journalist Victor Castanet and his book the gravediggers†