Technical solutions for adaptation of housing for elderly persons with physical disabilities and cognitive impairment
Résumé
Limousin is characterized as the oldest region of France with a mean age of 43 years in 2005, five years more than the national average. The part of the population of more than 75 years old is more important in Limousin (about 11 %) than at the national level (7.2 %). At now, there are in France 850 000 dependent persons of more than 60 years and they will be more than a million in 15 years. There are approximately 400 000 places in nursing homes, and eight French out of ten wish to live at home as long as possible. Preservation at home clearly appears as a real challenge of public health. The adaptation of housing constitutes an actual opportunity for the help to the preservation at home. The aging is accompanied by the appearance of gradual physical and psychological fragilities. The objective of our study has been to identify the physical and mental specificities of the elderly to take into account for an adequate adaptation of the housing environment. Declining abilities with age may be severe handicaps. The main options available to recover the person's living initial conditions focus on the development of suitable prostheses and several adaptations of home or furniture equipments. For the elderly people, the functional abilities reduction concerns mainly the sensory capabilities, the capacity of thermoregulation, the motor capabilities with a high risk of falling, the capacity of arousal and alertness. In our study, all these capabilities are taken into account in detail to derive specific and useful parameters to be applied for home environment adaptation. We give basic technical solutions for each of the potential disability. All these solutions are based upon ergonomics principles applied of the house furniture, of the floor and of the rooms disposal within the house. Thanks to home automation equipments, technical aspects can be added and applied to security, light and thermal comfort management that can help to preserve elders at home. The study is made in association with Habilim, a Real estate developer who acts for the comfort and the quality of life of residential buildings in particular for elderly and disabled people. The study is driven in parallel in cooperation with the gerontology service of the University Hospital of Limoges and researchers in the field of ICT and technologies for elderly and disabled people.