2023-04-28 20:37:47
(Montreal) The mental health of caregivers has been deteriorating for several years. The “Generous States” forum looked into this observation on Friday in Montreal.
Doctors, psychiatrists, social workers and nurses have come together to propose an action plan to improve the mental health of those who care for the health of others.
The mental health of health professionals is an issue that was of concern even before the pandemic. The insurer Beneva has noticed a 120% increase in departures lasting more than two years among caregivers due to psychological problems between 2017 and 2022.
The 120 professionals gathered at the forum organized by the Association of Psychiatric Physicians of Quebec (AMPQ) discussed in order to propose various possible solutions, which will be compiled by students from the Health Center of HEC Montreal. Experts from the organizing committee will then meet to publish a book of proposals.
“If we have a solid action plan, I guarantee you that I will promote it so that it is associated with sufficient funds to set it in motion in the next year, in the next budget,” promised the minister responsible. of Social Services, Lionel Carmant, during his speech to the participants of the forum.
For the president of the AMPQ, the Dre Claire Gamache, we must take care of the mental health of nursing staff as soon as they are on the school benches. “We are in this culture of excellence, of not being allowed to make mistakes, of always meeting extremely high standards, and that leads to vulnerabilities. I used to say that we teach depression a little at university in medicine, ”said the Dre Gamache.
And we must also dwell on the arrival of these young professionals on the labor market, according to the psychiatrist. “You really have to think regarding how you welcome new workers, how you support them, how you protect them, both from trauma and from the virus,” she said.
Mental health issues are not limited to medical students. A professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Montreal, Emmanuelle Khoury, mentions that students do internships quickly, and that their ideals of an anti-oppressive and equitable practice of social work often come up once morest a rigid system. “That’s performance, in the sense of how many people do I see, for how long,” explained M.me Khoury.
The professor notices that social workers go to the private network or change professions. “It’s a symptom of a network that doesn’t take care of the workers. We have to take care of our network, and vice versa,” said Ms.me Khoury.
Prior to the forum, the organizing committee of the “States General” conducted a series of interviews to present the first possible solutions to improve the mental health of health care personnel. Among them is the idea of making decisions individually as a professional with a view to overall health, and that patients are in the right place at the right time.
For the Dre Gamache, the forum was intended to be a place of interdisciplinary exchanges so that health professionals find “a shared meaning” in their work. “If our health system can become a learning system, we can adapt to change,” said the psychiatrist.
See beyond waiting lists
For the Dr Olivier Farmer, psychiatrist working in hospitals and at the Old Brewery Mission shelter, it is important to act upstream to prevent patients from being on a waiting list, rather than trying to reduce it at all costs.
“If the government is putting pressure on emptying the waiting list, that must mean that I have to see lots of new cases, not always so relevant. There I rush, and I do lots of notes, that’s my main activity. And if people come to the emergency room in a shovelful, they have to be hospitalized. We are in the hospital doing a lot of things that we might do in the community,” he explained.
“I find that I work much better when I am close, my actions are more effective,” added Mr. Farmer.
He believes that organizational measures might also be taken to prevent patients from clogging up the emergency room “for nothing”. For example, giving family physicians access to the cast room.
« [Les médecins de famille] can prescribe the cast, but they don’t have access to the cast room equipment that is in the hospital. They have to send them [les patients] in the emergency room, where they do the whole emergency process, see the emergency doctor once more, who will see the same thing,” explains the psychiatrist.
“We are still stuck with the waiting list indicator because we do not have many other indicators available in the network, so we are working to develop our indicators”, said the minister on this subject. Carmant in an interview, stating that “we went from 700,000 patients seen per year to 900,000 seen per year”.
This dispatch was produced with financial assistance from the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for News.
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