About Humanitude™

Established over 40 years ago and nationally recognised in France, Humanitude™ is a care methodology that restores dignity to vulnerable individuals and fosters care relationships. It has since expanded globally, gaining recognition for its relational approach to caregiving.

Founder of Humanitude, Yves Gineste, interacting with an elderly person.

“On average, the elderly in institutions receive 100 to 120 seconds of spoken words and 10 seconds of eye contact per day. Even then, these are sweeping, unfocused looks, reducing their presence to almost nothing”

Yves Gineste, Co-Founder of Humanitude™

In healthcare settings, caregivers may unintentionally dehumanise persons to cope with emotional and physical demands at work.

Providing quality care to vulnerable persons is not easy. Likewise, receiving care can be challenging.

When these persons receive little verbal interaction or meaningful physical contact, they withdraw into themselves and lose motivation, or adopt resistant or combative behaviours.

To address these challenges, Yves Gineste and Rosette Marescotti created Humanitude™, a care methodology that has been proven to revive the essential qualities and experiences that make caregivers and persons feel truly "human."

Caregivers providing Humanitude care to an elderly person in a wheelchair.

Former physical education and sports teachers, Yves Gineste and Rosette Marescotti transitioned into patient handling in 1985 and later evolved their ergonomic approach to care by factoring in philosophies of rehabilitation and Humanitude.

They were hired by the French government to address the high rate of back injuries among staff in nursing homes. During their work, they observed that beyond poor ergonomic practices, the resistance and lack of cooperation from care recipients contributed significantly to these injuries.

This led them to understand that before any care can take place, the relationship between the caregiver and care recipient must come first. Through their empirical observations, they developed relational techniques and evolved their ergonomic approach into a relational approach, which prioritises building positive emotional connection with patients.

Yves Gineste and Rosette Marescotti, founders of Humanitude care methodology.

Healthcare professionals attending a Humanitude training workshop in Singapore.

Drawing on their extensive experience with over 17,000 care recipients across more than 400 care services, they developed a multimodal care methodology known as Humanitude™.

Their work is recognised for its value in the global healthcare community, leading to their appointment as Visiting Researchers at the Tokyo Medical Center, as well as Yves as the Visiting Professor at the University of Shizuoka in Japan.

Continually supported by ongoing research with academic and healthcare groups, they have observed successful Humanitude™ implementations in Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland and France.

17000+

Care Recipients

400+

Care Services

A group of healthcare professionals and Humanitude trainer posing with their thumbs up.

Humanitude team from Apex Harmony Lodge

Zero forced care without care abandonment

• Always obtain consent before providing care.

• Integrate flexibility by allowing care to be postponed and aligned to individual rhythms.

Respect singularity and intimacy

• Personalise care according to unique needs and desires of each individual.

• Ensure private moments and spaces are treated with respect and discretion.

Live and die standing up

• Promote verticality (upright position) in all individuals.

• Encourage active participation in care and life activities.

Open to the outside

• Promote transparency and exchanges with the wider community.

• Encourage participation of care across healthcare departments as well as care recipients’ families.

Place of life, place of desires

• Create clean and respectful care environments that feel like “home”.

• Consider unique desires and choices of care recipients (e.g. food preferences and personalised care plans).

Sirana Tinmanee, Co-Founder of Humanitude Singapore, in professional studio portrait.

Co-Founder, Head of Communications and Humanitude™ Trainer

With Singapore being one of Asia’s fastest aging societies, we need to rethink how we care for the elderly and vulnerable among us.

While traditional methods of care may contribute to quantitative productivity in healthcare, their impact on the well-being of both caregivers and care recipients may not be adequately addressed.

By introducing the Humanitude™ care methodology to Singapore, we aim to offer a fresh perspective on caregiving - one that recognises the transformative impact of human connection regardless of age, cognitive and physical abilities.

With the research at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, it is proven that beyond the caregiving relationships, the positive impact of Humanitude™ can also be observed through the increased resilience and enhancement of well-being in their healthcare employees.

About Humanitude™ Singapore

Humanitude™ Singapore is part of the international network of providers for training programmes on Humanitude™ Care Methodology. Since 2019, we have been providing Humanitude™ training for nearly a thousand healthcare professionals across various care settings in Singapore, including acute hospitals, community hospitals, nursing homes, and day care centres.

Through various collaborations in the healthcare communities, Humanitude™ Singapore has become a trusted partner with a shared vision of enhancing the well-being of caregivers and vulnerable care recipients, including persons living with dementia.