Of Tommaso Bernardo
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In Nantes, near the Bourdonnières high school, ESEAN (follow-up and rehabilitation health facility for children and adolescents), open since February 2010welcomes children and adolescents, from 0 to 18 years.
A place managed by APF France Handicap, and where health workers facilitate the daily life of young people.
Three units of care
The building consists of a single floor and has three care units: a conventional inpatient unit, a daytime inpatient unit open from 8.45am to 5.45pm and a rehabilitation unit with physiotherapy, occupational therapy or balneotherapy.
“We have 55 full hospital beds and about 30 for day hospitalization,” explains Karine Couillères, head of ESEAN coordination.
Inside the palace of Nantes, children with various pathologies are welcomed due to problems related to the musculoskeletal system, the nervous system, respiratory disorders, digestive system disorders but also onco-haematological.
It is a health institution whose main missions are long-term.
Together with Bordeaux, ESEAN in Nantes is the only establishment of its kind on the Atlantic coast. Children from all over the west of France, but also young people from Guyana are hospitalized here on the advice of a doctor.
The hospital’s missions consist in re-educating and reintegrating the young person in his or her institution of origin, but there is also “pediatric assistance for long-term illnesses that require a shorter or longer hospitalization”.
School and entertainment
Family room, classroom, restaurants, children’s bedrooms, several rooms run along the corridor on the first floor.
Upstairs we meet Khalid. In his room, the hospitalized boy is accompanied by a nurse. Throughout the morning, Khalid’s smile lit up every corner of the ESEAN.
The rooms are divided into two sectors: a “Girafe” shelter unit that welcomes children from Monday to Friday and a “Diver” shelter unit that welcomes children on an ongoing basis, for those who cannot go home to sleep.
“We organize activities with children all year round. In the next few days we will host an educational farm,” says Karine Couillères.
From kindergarten to high school, hospitalized children follow a traditional education thanks to the intervention of the teachers of National Education. Interventions such as social assistance are also present on site from Monday to Friday.
On a daily basis, ESEAN teams mobilize to enable young patients to reintegrate. Throughout the care, health workers and children smile to prepare for the future.
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