Mapping loss of autonomy among the elderly

Résumé 0

Understanding the differences in loss of autonomy between French departments is essential since they are the leading providers of social services to the elderly. For the first time, thanks to the combination of several data sources, it is possible to obtain a snapshot of the care needs of the elderly in each French department. This study sheds light on the differences in care that can be observed between departments from the perspective of the needs of their citizens, and can help to orient local policies to meet these needs. Unlike previous studies on the subject, it is not restricted to the population receiving benefits related to loss of autonomy (Abassi et al., 2020), it includes both the at-home and institutionalized populations (Brunel and Carrère, 2017), and it compares several measures of disability (Larbi and Roy, 2019). Moreover, it allows us to question the implications of departmental policy via two channels: (1) the way departments mobilize the criteria for assessing loss of autonomy; and (2) the supply of institutional places and the residential mobilities that may induce.