Accompagnement citoyen personnalisé en intégration communautaire : un défi pour la santé mentale ?

Abstract

L’accompagnement personnalisé d’intégration communautaire (APIC) offre un soutien aux personnes ayant un traumatisme craniocérébral (TCC) qui vivent des difficultés d’intégration sociale. Dans ce programme, l’accompagnateur citoyen rencontre une personne trois heures par semaine pendant un an afin de la soutenir dans la réalisation de ses projets et activités. Ce rôle confronte les accompagnateurs citoyens à de nombreux défis qui peuvent entraîner des risques pour leur santé mentale. Cet article fait part des représentations de la pratique de l’accompagnement citoyen selon la perspective des accompagnateurs citoyens. Les résultats permettent de dégager cinq principes qui délimitent et définissent cette pratique : 1) trouver la « bonne distance » dans la relation avec l’accompagné ; 2) considérer l’ensemble des acteurs dans le processus ; 3) mettre la personne et ses désirs au coeur de la pratique ; 4) accepter de ne pas tout savoir ; et enfin, 5) s’engager tout en acceptant la possibilité d’être transformé.APIC (Citizen Accompaniment Project for Community Integration) offers support for the social integration of people living with traumatic brain injury. The accompanying citizen meets the person three hours a week for a period of a year in order to offer assistance in the accomplishment of his/her projects and activities. This role confronts the accompanying citizen with many challenges that may put their mental health at risk. This article offers a reflection on this practice from the accompanying citizen’s perspective. Five principles that can help better delimit and define citizen accompaniment are drawn from the results: 1) finding a “good distance” in the relationship to the accompanied person, 2) considering all of the actors in the process, 3) putting the accompanied person and their desires at the heart of the practice, 4) accepting not knowing everything, 5) being committed to the project and accepting it may transform you

Attendants’ experience with the Personalized citizen assistance for social participation (APIC)

“…They had di culties in clearly establishing what was expected from them in the older adults' life plans. This absence of clear boundaries was also reported by attendants who participated in another study [28]. This confusion over boundaries and the desire to better understand and de ne the attendants' role led…”

“…family, community, etc. ); 3) make the assisted person and his desires the focus of the personalized assistance; 4) acknowledge that an attendant will not know everything; and 5) recognize the possibility of being transformed throughout personalized assistance [28]. These recommendations could provide greater understanding of what is expected of attendants during personalized assistance and could de ne more clearly their roles with older adults in the future training of attendants.…”

“…To identify their personal limits and reduce ambiguous situations in their relationships with older adults, attendants expressed a need for coaching [27]. Attendants experienced several limitations, particularly related to the lack of motivation of the person they assisted during social activities, which was sometimes di cult to overcome [28]. To recruit and assist attendants in future, better knowledge of the attendants' experience, and the resulting bene ts, will be needed.…”

Towards a better understanding of the impact of the sequelae of TBI on the social participation of seniors

“…The data were collected during the fi rst phase of a longitudinal qualitative study that aimed to adapt, implement and assess the Personalized citizen assistance for social participation program (APIC) with seniors who have a TBI. In conjunction with the existing community resources, the APIC offers support to seniors to promote their social participation through mentoring to help them carry out the daily living and leisure activities that are meaningful to them [23,24]. The APIC study relies on the constructivist paradigm [25] and offers opportunities for learning and refl ection.…”

Towards a better understanding of the impact of the sequelae of TBI on the social participation of seniors

“…In conjunction with the existing community resources, the APIC offers support to seniors to promote their social participation through mentoring to help them carry out the daily living and leisure activities that are meaningful to them [23,24]. The APIC study relies on the constructivist paradigm [25] and offers opportunities for learning and refl ection.…”