Potez, Clotilde
Our caregivers, athletes of care and artists of humanity!
- 2024.
14
Giving an account of the experiences of caregivers means turning them, people who pay so much attention to others in their day-to-day professional activities, into subjects of attention in their own right. This approach means giving them the floor, listening to them, to understand what they experience in the exercise of their role, and what they have to say about humanity and society. The metaphorical comparison of the caregiver with the athlete and the artist, which at first glance may surprise or elicit a smile, can nonetheless raise some profound questions. These questions relate in particular to the training, resources, and techniques available to caregivers to provide care, the difficulties they face, the resulting suffering, and the resources they can draw on to deal with or overcome these obstacles, as well as the potential for transformation inherent in the caring experience. To perfect care practices, rather than aiming essentially for efficiency and profitability (often at the expense of both patients and carers), perhaps we could start by striving to make them more human. Caring for caregivers means putting them in the right frame of mind to guide the “patient” entrusted to them towards physical, psychological, and social well-being. Isn’t a society that takes care of its caregivers a society that takes care of all its citizens? Indeed, whether for ourselves or for our loved ones, the subject of caregiving is one that impacts us all.