In palliative care, the “social utility” of volunteers to “prevent people from dying alone”

Room 105, on the first floor of the Curie Institute, in Paris, on May 20. Sybille Adam, a volunteer at the institution for twenty-two years, listens to Régine (those cited by their first name did not wish to give their last name), hospitalized for cancer treatment. "For now, I'm fine! " the patient says in a small voice. "But if I'm in too much pain, I'd like to leave earlier so as not to suffer. I'll ask for the injection if the law allows it one day." "Have you spoken to the doctor?" asks ^Mrs. Adam, kneeling at the foot of the bed . "Oh, no! We'll see. I'm telling you this, but perhaps when the axe is there..." Sitting next to her, her husband Bruno interrupts her: "Régine is made of stainless steel!" "It feels good to talk," smiles the patient, who has sat up in bed at the end of the meeting.

Sybille Adam and Sylvie de Quatrebarbes coordinate a team of five volunteers at the Curie Institute, all integrated into the institution's mobile palliative care unit. One is a former schoolteacher, the other a former graphologist. They have their first name on a badge, knock on doors, with the doctors' permission, and offer their time each week to patients they may never see again and others they will accompany until their death.

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