With each murderous tragedy, including that of the ram-truck attack in Amqui, the same question comes up. Did the accused have serious mental health problems? Instead of speculating, however, the answer should wait for the trial stage.
Nevertheless, if the question arises spontaneously, it is because we all know, well beyond the tragedies, that mental health resources are dangerously scarce.
What’s more, the pandemic has plunged many of us into a deep state of social isolation. However, the line between isolation, distress and despair is sometimes thin. Very slim.
This is where the blatant inaccessibility to psychologists and psychiatrists, to the public and even to the private sector, does the most damage. And what regarding its harmful impact even before distress sets in on someone?
In response to the deadly attack in Amqui, Prime Minister François Legault, recognizing that he lacks resources, turned to the population.
“When you see someone around you showing worrying signs, well, you have to find a way to intervene,” he said. Of course.
How to intervene?
But how do you do it when the waiting lists for psychotherapy and psychiatry are endless? How to intervene when a loved one needs real professional support, but it is impossible to obtain it in a normal time? Because beyond the recent tragedies, of which we do not yet know the primary causes, human tragedies are secretly multiplying. Behind the closed doors of homes, without active mental health support, how many fall into distress?
In this, the ultimate responsibility is political. On show All one morningDr. Marie-Ève Cotton, psychiatrist, recalled that in Quebec, one-third of consultations in the health care system are made for a mental health issue, while the latter is only entitled to 1/7 of the budget. .
Only governments have the financial means to remedy this increasingly worrying situation.
