Sabrina Albayrak, protector of freedoms
In 2060, how old will you be ? At 80, 90 or 100 under what living conditions would you like to end your life ? Will you be one of three French people over the age of 60?
Sabrina Albayrak began her life in a retirement home “at some point in our lives, we had to leave our home and we were relocated to a company apartment that was above the retirement home where my mother, who is a caregiver for the elderly, worked. As a result, living above this retirement home means that I was almost permanently - when I was not in school - in the institution, with the elderly, with the professionals, with the families who were there.” (2’13) At the age of six or seven, she could barely read and write that she was already observing the daily lives of the elderly “I saw incredible things ! I have seen couples form, I have seen extraordinary parties on many themes. I saw old people dancing, singing, being very happy." But she also discovered the other side of the scene : “when you are an external person, you come to study phenomena such as mistreatment, inequalities, disrespect for human rights. Well, these are things you can’t see. You really have to be part of a structure to understand all these things.’ (5’09) She saw the abuse experienced by the residents “What I asked myself at the time is why we could so much afford to interfere in the life of an elderly person. Does a senior have less ability to make decisions ? At some point, is there an age when you are no longer considered a full-fledged being ? Well, I already had the answer. It was no”. (6’21)
It was from there that she had the spark to tell herself that she wanted to work to improve the lives of residents and caregivers who are also experiencing a lot of abuse. Since primary school, she hasn’t given up ! her studies, her small jobs: everything has been centered to achieve this goal. In 2016, she even resumed her studies to write a thesis which led her to a conclusion “the most protective factor of so-called positive quality of life for the elderly is respect of freedoms. It’s not the number of visits the elderly person is going to get a week. it’s not her health. It’s not a memory problem. But it is this notion of freedom”. (8’35)
Today she is a doctor of public health, sociologist of aging and director of the start-up Arbitryum which accompanies the nursing home (residential facilities for dependent elderly) measure and improve the quality of life of caregivers and residents. This start-up was made possible by 21, the social innovation accelerator of the French Red Cross. A partnership that also allowed her to create, during the Covid-19 crisis, Entraide, a free platform that allows caregivers to exchange between them during the health crisis. Sabrina Albayrak is not representative of the image that one has of a person who helps. And yet, she works to improve living conditions of all the elderly throughout France