AFRADESS

In EXEC
Sun, 22 Jun 2008

HealthManagement, Volume 10, Issue 3 / 2008

The French Association of Managers of Healthcare, social and medical-social Institutions AFRADESS (As - sociation française des Directeurs d’Etablissements sanitaires et sociaux) is a non-profit association open to managers and executive managers active in the private non-profit sector of healthcare (hospitals, clinics, etc), social care (emergency drop-in centres, legal placement centres, etc.) and me - dical-social establishments (for the disabled and elderly).

This sector covers more than 3,000 establishments and servi ces in France.

AFRADESS aims to bring together the various components making up the non-profit sector and to work in conjunction with managing executives to take an active part in the changes affecting gover nance and management in the area of non-profit establishments and services.

Based on the principle that management needs to adapt to changes in the social sector and that executive managers must broaden their skills, AFRADESS aims to contribute to these chan ges, which can even be seen as a cultural revolution, by providing exe cutive managers with support in the form of advice, assistance and representation in a profession which is increasingly at the forefront of developments and as such ex posed to multiple un knowns.

AFRADESS has therefore set up its “SABRE” project based on the principles of Solidarity, Assistance, Benchmarking, Networking and Mutual Aid.

AFRADESS aims to:

represent executive managers active in the various social fields involving healthcare, the disabled and elderly, as well as social care establishments;

provide assistance to executive managers in their various functions involving the managing of establishments;

promote the exchange of ideas, experiences, the emergence of innovative ideas and information on experimental approaches;

develop knowledge networks, lobbying and networking bet - ween players in the various management domains;

also provide support to executive managers who are experiencing difficulties in their managerial functions.

For this purpose, AFRADESS is: setting up a website, which willenable executive managers tocontact the association;developing the “SOS Manager”unit, which has representatives inall major regions. This is a dedica tedtool to promote solidarity amongits members and through which amanager can obtain free, confidentialassistance from collea gueswhen facing unexpected challengesin exercising his functions.helping to grow membershipamong executive managers inCADR’AS (insurance and legal aidcontract), which is insurance coveragefor criminal and civildefence in the event a manager isinvolved in a legal dispute with hisBoard of Directors;

working to bring together within its association the various mana - gers representing the social sector and active in the management of establishments;

launching a new AFRADESS membership drive.