To enable elderly individuals to continue living at home under the best possible conditions, the ARS Occitanie is deploying Territorial Resource Centers (CRT), branded as « The Choice to Grow Old at Home ». These centers leverage the expertise of EHPADs (nursing homes), home support services, and their partners to provide geriatric resources and expertise, along with enhanced home support when necessary.
The primary objective is to allow seniors to remain in their homes, even with loss of autonomy, through coordinated and secure support. The CRT is a team of professionals specializing in aging, operating within a defined territory to offer complementary solutions to seniors, their family caregivers, and other professionals.
The CRT's missions are twofold: to make geriatric resources and expertise available to the territory, facilitating access to prevention, specialized skills, caregiver support, and social connection activities; and to offer enhanced home support to seniors requiring greater coordination and security to continue living independently.
The program targets individuals over 60 experiencing loss of autonomy who need help or care in their daily lives, as well as their family caregivers. It can be particularly beneficial for those returning home after hospitalization. Interested individuals are encouraged to discuss their situation with their primary care physician or contact their local CRT for an assessment.
Services offered include advice on adapting and securing homes, teleassistance solutions, access to specialized health professionals, autonomy loss prevention programs (falls, memory), leisure and social activities, caregiver support, and psychological counseling when needed.
The ARS Occitanie continues to expand the CRT network, with a new call for expressions of interest conducted in 2026 in conjunction with the Departmental Councils. New centers are slated to open in 2027 and 2028, strengthening territorial coverage.
A specific project, the « Autonomy Demonstrator », is being piloted in Aveyron for five years. It aims to test new models for organizing home support for seniors with declining autonomy, under an agreement between the State, ARS Occitanie, and the Departmental Council of Aveyron, supported by the ANAP (National Agency for the Support of Performance of Health and Medico-social Establishments).
This experiment, part of a regional community of practice among CRTs, seeks to better organize resources, bring expertise closer to living spaces, and enhance the coordination of responses for seniors, providing valuable insights for future policies on aging support.
