Marked by the suicide of several loved ones, Minister Lionel Carmant confided in an interview regarding the pressure that young doctors are experiencing and asks the citizens who are suffering to seek help.
“It can happen to anyone, there is no one who is above that,” said the minister responsible for social services.
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A few days ago, Lionel Carmant might not hide his emotion when highlighting suicide prevention week at the National Assembly. “I would like to tell my cousin Yvan, my former colleagues and friends Charles, Alain, Antoine and Maryse that I am proud to carry the fight once morest suicide prevention on their behalf and on behalf of all bereaved families.”
Minister responsible for the Mental Health file, he agreed to open up regarding these sad moments, at the request of our Parliamentary Bureau. Her cousin committed suicide when they were both in their early twenties. The pediatric neurologist then saw four of his medical colleagues take their own lives during his medical career.
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The same questions kept coming back.
“It leaves a wound, it leaves a feeling of helplessness… What might I have done to help? Did I miss the opportunity to intervene? When you arrive at the funeral, when it’s someone your age and you see his children bawling, an inconceivable pain comes to you, ”he recalls.
The distress of caregivers
Even if most leave nothing to show, the distress is great among health personnel, underlines the Dr Carmen. “It’s true that we don’t show it, we are the ones who receive patients, the users, those who listen to people, but often we are also in pain, especially following two years of pandemic, I think that been particularly difficult for many caregivers.”
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And the medical community may have even less of an instinct to ask for help. It is an environment where the cult of performance reigns. Especially at the start of a career and towards the end of an academic career, the requirements are very high.
Lionel Carmant still remembers his years of residency – a prerequisite for becoming a doctor – where studies are added to the many hours of hospital duty, day and night. During this period, when sleep is scarce, many aspiring doctors are weakened.
“The demands we put on ourselves… They’re all A personalities, people who have always been first in a lot of everything they’ve done, it’s not easy to live through difficult times in this context there. We think we can get by on our own, but no, on the contrary, we have to ask for help, ”he insists.
Pandemic and mental health
If the pandemic and the multiple confinements have been very difficult for many Quebecers, this dark period will at the very least have made it possible to raise people’s awareness of mental health, believes the minister.
“I think we have to keep this momentum” and continue to make people aware of the importance of asking for help if we are not well or if we decode distress in someone close to us.
“Inhabited” by the sad fate of his cousin and his colleagues, Lionel Carmant wants to improve access to mental health services. The case of Christine Caron, a 25-year-old young woman suffering from a borderline personality disorder, who took her own life last December following going to the emergency room twice does not pass.
“In that story, which was really unacceptable, and that’s what we have to change, people feel unwelcome when they come for a mental health problem. And when you have the courage to ask for help, it’s not the time to get turned around!
The minister wants to set up “mental health counters” in all emergency rooms in Quebec so that people in distress are welcomed by specialized professionals.
Until then, people who are not well are invited to dial 811 Info-Social, where qualified people are available to listen and then direct citizens to the best resources.
