Do you want to make the stay of hospitalized people easier? Bring some humanity into the day of a sick person, a dependent elderly person? Give a little time out of solidarity?
The team of Martine Duclos, president for six years of the association “library of the Intercommunal Hospital Center” (CHI of Fréjus Saint-Raphaël) extends its arms to you and will be happy to welcome you to increase the number of visits to the floors.
“We are looking for volunteers to distribute, using a trolley, the many books in the rooms of the different departments, confided Martine Duclos. We are about ten active volunteers and we like to bring comfort and a little distraction to patients.”
“Offering reading is the ideal way to engage in dialogue,” she continued.. We also run a reading club aloud, at the bedside or in a group, with residents in gerontology, in the hospital’s nursing home for dependent elderly people (Ehpad). If you have some free time, join us!”
Staff to resume Friday tour
“It is true that the book is an opportunity to bring a presence for a few moments, a listening for a few minutes, added Claude Cheron. We are not care workers, it is not the same contact. It changes people’s ideas, who take the opportunity to chat a little because many do not have visitors. They are often tired and choose magazines rather than big books, but they are always happy. They do not want things that are too demanding and do not plan on several days of reading, that is why we are hoping for donations of simple books, recipes or about cars for the gentlemen, but especially illustrated magazines.”
Martine Duclos and Claude Cheron admit that patients are often “a little surprised because this service is not offered in all healthcare establishments. It’s even rare. The library of the Fréjus Saint-Raphaël hospital was created in 1975 then in the form of an association in 2005, and has developed with the support of the CHI management over the years and the unconditional help of the partners. It is an opportunity to offer readings and a presence, special moments. New volunteers would allow us to strengthen our Tuesday tour and, why not if there are enough of us, to make a new team to resume the Friday tour, abandoned at the time of Covid. We counted 1,636 loans in 2023”.
Shows, events financed by the association
Last year, the library also funded no fewer than twelve singing and dancing shows and animal therapy activities in the La Chênaie and Saint-Jacques nursing homes and the Les Mûriers long-term care unit.
The association is asked to participate in cultural events such as the spring of poets, the music festival, exhibitions such as the one planned for December on the Malpasset dam disaster, etc.
The reading committee chooses the new releases and the library association buys recent works to vary the stock, which also includes books in English, Italian, Spanish and German.
Hundreds of books sorted, labeled, cleaned and disinfected, loans listed…
The library operates thanks to subsidies from the hospital, the municipalities of Fréjus and Saint-Raphaël, contributions from members, supporters and volunteers.
Anyone who would like to help or donate books can contact 04.94.40.21.21 (ask for extension 2424) during office hours on Tuesdays and Fridays from 1:30 p.m. to 5 p.m.
