Georges Czapiuk
Groupe Hospitalier Diaconesses Croix Saint Simon, Paris
France
The Companion House: an original initiative at the crossroads between palliative care and social care of precariousness
My project within the EUPCA is about opening a house for patients with chronic life- threatening disease AND economic and social uncertainty.
This population is suffering from exclusion: On one hand they experience difficulties to access best health care because of social impairment and health literacy and on the other hand their social status is worsening because of their bad health condition. Usually these patients are staying in an acute hospital setting longer than expected.
The “maison d’accompagnement” project is aiming to open a structure offering a place for living and a place of care for patients with chronic life-threatening disease AND economic and social uncertainty, starting by writing down the concept of this new structure and pointing out the features of this structure among the other structures of palliative care.
Concretely, the best way to achieve this goal could be to Create 4 therapeutic coordination apartments “appartements de coordination thérapeutique”: an administrative structure which exist already but not for palliative care patients.
I am planning to contact the appropriate authorities: The regional health agency, ARS, have already shown their interest in the project.
A location has been found; in a building of the Groupe Hospitalier Diaconesses Croix Saint Simon (the hospital where I work).
In the meantime a research project about the palliative care needs of the population with economic and social uncertainty has been launched and will inform us about the targeted population.
This project fits well with the third axis of the national plan for palliative care 2015-2018, i.e. to develop the home-based care, including patients facing social difficulties and living in assisted living settings.