“I open my patio door and if I don’t move, it’s okay, I’m not too hot at home,” says Michelle Therrien, who lives in a private residence for elders (RPA) on Boulevard Gouin, in the north of Montreal.
On Monday, she was waiting outside her suitable transport to go to Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital to make her dialysis. In the shade, but while heat and humidity were already well installed.
Do you have a lot of water to hydrate yourself? “No, I cannot drink much because my kidneys no longer work,” she replies, assuring that she was going to talk to the medical staff, during her treatment.
At 84, Madeleine Poulin had launched her day early in the morning. At 11 a.m., she returned, on foot, from the Caisse Populaire. “Room, it only takes me 30 minutes. It’s good for health, to walk before it is really too hot! »»
At home, in another residence for seniors on Boulevard Gouin, she does not hide that air conditioning would not be a luxury these days. “In RPA, it should be required,” she says.
76 years old, Pierre Cyr lives in an apartment. He got out of it in the morning to get some air. But outside, it was all the more overwhelming as a major construction site is at its door, boulevard Henri-Bourassa, dust and din included.
Mr. Cyr, who recalls a triple puncture in the heart suffered in February-“Look at this scar!” “He says-was particularly happy that his follow-up meeting fell on Monday. “In the hospital, he will be cooler for a few hours. »»
Like so many other elderly people, he nevertheless assures that at home, he refuses to have air conditioning.
Photo Charles William Pelletier, special collaboration
Pierre Cyr
Last year, it gave me a torticollis. I have a country house in Portneuf, I may go there tomorrow.
Pierre Cyr
At the age of 74, Michel Laurin intended to set sail for the very air -conditioned casino.
He reports that a few weeks ago, police and staff from the city of Montreal went to distribute “a pamphlet to remind us of the precautions to take in hot weather and to give us a thermometer to hang on the wall”.
CLSC staff are also sure to take news of vulnerable people.
Photo Charles William Pelletier, special collaboration
Cyr stone dog
An unequal portrait
The elderly who live alone at home must ensure their own comfort.
What is the portrait, in the RPA?
According to data collected by The pressin residences for the elderly, just over half of people (52 %) live in one of the 1113 residences that do not offer the air conditioning of the rooms.
Brigitte Pouliot, spokesperson for Cogir, who manages 270 RPA in North America, notes that the majority of residents can have the air conditioning installed in their room if they ask for it and that the common areas are air-conditioned.
In fact, according to data from The pressalmost all RPAs offer at least one air -conditioned room – typically, a living room or the common dining room. Only 134 of the 1634 RPA do not have them.
Be in danger and ignore it
The protective effect of air -conditioned parts is very limited, argues Glen Kenny, holder of the University of Ottawa research chair in environmental physiology.
For his many studies on the subject, of which he speaks with passion, he has measured the effect of heat, air conditioning and ventilation in the elderly.
When the elderly can spend a few hours in an air conditioned area, their well-being will be temporary, notes Mr. Kenny.
The heat accumulates in the body and as soon as the elderly return to their apartment or their hot room, after two hours, they are as high at high risk as those who have not had access to air conditioning at all.
Glen Kenny, the l’university the Ottawa
In general, beyond 26 ° C-widely exceeded this week, especially inside-, the elderly must be vigilant. Because even when they are in great shape, their body no longer adapts to heat as before, which they are not necessarily aware.
Photo Charles William Pelletier, special collaboration
In general, beyond 26 ° C, the elderly must be vigilant.
For a few hours and up to a day, an elderly person can normally tolerate up to 31 degrees. “But if he is still so hot the next day, it becomes a real stressful for the body. The heart works louder, the body temperature increases. At 36 degrees, it’s downright dangerous, ”warns Mr. Kenny.
The great danger, continues Mr. Kenny, is that in a certain age, the body sends bad signals. The elderly – sometimes with a small wool on their backs in the middle of summer – can swear to their loved ones that they perfectly support the heat, to tolerate it apparently very well for a few hours. “Then, suddenly, they do not feel well, get up to go and have a water and fall. This is how during the historic heat wave of 2021, in British Columbia, traumatic injuries were on the rise, ”notes Mr. Kenny.
Fans have their limits
Mr. Kenny also believes that, still in British Columbia, it is wrong that the authorities massively distributed fans, in 2021, expecting a protective effect.
“If you manage to combine a fan with a little air conditioned and you can maintain your room at 28 or 29 degrees, it can help. Beyond 33 degrees, ventilation does not lower body temperature. »»
The elderly may feel better, which will risk giving him a false feeling of security and the desire, very wrongly, “to go shopping or do some gardening”.
In short, in the heat, in addition to good hydration, for the elderly, the air conditioning is essential, according to Mr. Kenny. For the environment, it is not ideal, but one cannot endanger the health or even the life of an elderly person. A stunning, then a hip fracture, it was so quickly, underlines Mr. Kenny.
Without saying that air conditioning must be made in residences for the elderly, Me Paul G. Brunet, lawyer and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Council for the Protection of Patients, invites governments to reflection.
A temperature of 35 ° C in the room of a resident in RPA “is both dangerous for his life, for his safety and his integrity,” he insists.
It’s better in CHSLD
In the CHSLDs, in recent years, things have improved.
Photo Patrick Sanfaçon, La Presse Archives
An air conditioner installed in a room of a Montreal CHSLD
In 2024, there were 15,944 air -conditioned rooms on a total of 32,462. The symbolic CAP of 50 % air -conditioned rooms is therefore almost reached.
In the year 2024 alone, 2,894 additional rooms were air conditioned in CHSLD. Between 2019 and 2024, the improvement is 19.4 %.
These figures come from the Quebec association of retirees from the public and parapublic sectors (AQRP), which is responsible for defending not only its members, but all the elderly.
Systematically, for a dozen years, this association has therefore had requests for access to information. At first, only 8 % of CHSLD rooms were air -conditioned.
But Blitz has been in recent years in existing CHSLDs in recent years and all new constructions (recent CHSLDs and Houses des Seninés) have central cooling systems.
Paul-René Roy, president of the AQRP, stresses that what has changed the situation is that since last year, the CHSLDs “have been required to provide the air conditioning for any resident of CHSLD which presents the request”.
The installation times vary clearly from one region to another, notes Mr. Roy, ranging from 24 hours in certain CIUSS to some 30 days elsewhere.
“Thirty days, it’s very, very long,” regrets Mr. Roy.
Also, in some CHSLDs that date, “the electrical system simply cannot take additional devices”.
The elderly, pleads Me Paul G. Brunet, of the Patient Protection Council, have the right to be as comfortable in their room as managers, in their offices. If the office is the workplace of managers, the chamber is the user’s living environment, ”he recalls.
