Les organismes communautaires de Montréal face au vieillissement et à la précarité des personnes toxicomanes : perspectives des intervenants et usagers

This thesis focuses on Montreal’s community organizations facing the aging and precariousness of addicts: perspectives of stakeholders and users. It integrates the perspectives of stakeholders and users.  Montreal would certainly not be the same without the essential contribution of its’ Community Organisations (CO). Wherever poverty prevails, where difficulties strike, thousands of people work in these CO and redouble their efforts, too often in the shadows with the means at hand, forcing them to show ingenuity, resourcefulness, and dedication to maintaining their services, the only source of comfort and hope to relieve, help, and support those who need it most. The list of various needs is too long and this poses new challenges for CO which must broaden their range of services in order to attempt to respond adequately to certain problems experienced concomitantly such as aging, precariousness and addiction.  On the one hand, premature aging threatens addicts because of the effects of psychotropic substance use. On the other hand, aging non addicts are more likely to become physiologically dependent on drugs and other potentially addictive substances. Aging people suffering from addiction are affected by concomitant problems such as precariousness and exclusion. Resources focusing on aging, precariousness and addiction are limited, or even non-existent, since each of these issues is treated independently. The aim of the study is to develop knowledge and understanding of the issues specific to aging and precarious addicts (APA) and the CO offering their services to this clientele.   The field survey of this study, which is based on a qualitative approach, consisted of interviewing 14 representatives of different CO as well as 16 users, all selected according to the predefined characteristics of the research samples. The results of the study analysis indicate that APA people represent on average 80% of the clientele of CO participating in this study, 7 of which offer them services not included in their mission. Despite the large number of services offered, the CO identify many specific and immediate needs to deal with the increase of frequentation by APA customers. The users of the survey are between 55 and 74 years old. 75% are men and 25% are women. The 55-59 age group being significantly representative of the population of APA users seems to be the most problematic. The study confirms what has been underlined in the literature regarding the mental and physical health of people with addiction.  The functional capacity profile of the CO, established on the opinions of the interviewees, shows that the CO have a good organizational structure, have increasing visibility with the public, but they experience great difficulties in terms of financial and human resources. The improvement of the APA clientele situation through the success of the strategies relating to the aspects of finance, personnel management, and the other aspects of the functioning of the CO depend on the cooperation and the commitment of several actors of the society: the users, CO’s staff, the addict’s social environment, partner organizations, private companies, and the State.

Keyphrases: Community organization, Poverty, Precariousness, Social exclusion, Aging, Addiction