“The world of health is poorly prepared as a whole and with some exceptions, to take charge, welcome and treat people with a disability, especially if it is heavy”, it is by this observation that Pierre Gauthier, President of the National Union of Training and Research Associations in Social Intervention (Unaforis), introduced the Jacob report. This document, drawn up by the president of the Handidactique association, Pascal Jacob, was given to Marie-Arlette Carlotti, the minister in charge of disabled people and Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs and Health, in April 2013.
Pascal Jacob based himself on the experiences of people with disabilities and their relatives to tackle a taboo subject: access to healthcare. In his report, he sets out twelve proposals to improve this difficult situation. For example, the establishment of a privileged interlocutor, called the Referent of the Health Course (RPS), in order to help the disabled person in all the steps to be taken, to integrate a module dedicated to the handicap in all the courses of training of care professions, or even review the pricing of all care.
Emergency care
“All these subjects are important, and it is difficult to choose”, indicated Marie-Arlette Carlotti to Le Figaro, “however, I am particularly sensitive to the proposals on current care: too often people with disabilities give up or have to go to hospital to obtain them, sometimes urgently. The report therefore rightly emphasizes this point. The current effort to reorganize primary care offers an opportunity to make it more accessible to people with disabilities. “
According to the report, around three million people with disabilities, mental or physical, could be better treated. Much work remains to be done, according to Pascal Jacob, in particular with regard to awareness-raising and training of caregivers. “It’s not up to disability to get closer to medicine, it’s up to medicine to get closer to disability,” he says in Figaro.
An Interministerial Disability Committee (CIH) is planned for this summer. The Ayrault government intends to look into the financial issues raised by this report.
