In the psychiatric congresses around the world, the French representatives remain very listened to, but the return to their service is another story. Psychiatrists are tired of fighting: against the inflation of the number of patients, a degraded image, declining resources and a bureaucracy which is eating up their time … in the indifference of the health authorities. Yet Agnès Buzyn has decided to take matters into her own hands. Yesterday she presented an action plan with the “Jupiterian” ambition of placing France at the forefront of the international scene …
Agnès Buzyn remained a professor of medicine in her approach to the profession of minister. if she does not have a good understanding of the profession of the family doctor, which the profession will soon reproach her with, she is however well aware of the importance of psychiatry in the management of most illnesses. It is also undoubtedly very influenced by the planetary ambition aroused by Emmanuel Macron. Our Minister of Health endorses the strategy of its president, who wants to persuade the world to return our country to the forefront. Of course, she does not choose an economically easy file, but also, intelligently, one in which France has always played an essential role: psychiatry. 50 years ago the big names in the specialty were French. The Denickers, Lacans, and even Henri Laborit, the inventor of neuroleptics, had international reputations. The international community is waiting for the name of their successors.
The reason is certainly the hardness of the job on a daily basis which no longer leaves much time for reflection, at all levels of the profession. From field psychiatrists to department heads. The slingshot rumbles. Psychiatrists are fed up. Tired of doing a difficult job; the news often reminds us of this. Tired of being considered by their colleague as separate doctors, fed up with being as badly considered as those they treat and who are pejoratively called madmen …
Our minister goes in their direction by asserting that research in mental health and psychiatry in France was not up to the discipline, notably in child psychiatry.
Announcement followed by effects? The world of psychiatry hopes so.
Agnès Buzyn is committed to ensuring that this situation ceases … And quickly! With more resources first. It promises to make it a health priority and above all proves that it is very attentive by proposing twelve emergency measures borrowed from the proposals already formulated by the representatives of the profession in December. A reactivity greeted by these doctors present during the intervention of the minister on Friday at their annual congress, the Encephalon which was held in Paris.
The minister also wants the image of psychiatry to change within the medical professions. This will not be easy given the lack of knowledge of this discipline among “other” doctors, an attitude that has lasted for a long time. then Agnès Buzin affirms in an interview with the newspaper Le Monde that “All these future practitioners will complete a compulsory internship in psychiatry during their studies. Three or six months, the details remain to be discussed”.
The price of this disagreement is also tragically reflected in the daily life of these patients. Patients with chronic diseases usually die sooner than others from different diseases (mostly cardiovascular) that are not diagnosed.
A fundamental specialty
However, recourse to the psychiatrist, for a multitude of problems that only they can try to solve, is becoming more and more necessary in a world which is becoming dehumanized and where networks claim to manage information and education. And when the intention is there, it is practically impossible to find an appointment for several months, an eternity when you are in pain …
The psychiatrists of the committee – all components of the profession united for once – cry out their dissatisfaction with the supervisory authorities who refuse to hear them and an administration which asks them for secretarial work now more important than the time devoted to patients. It is true that often in psychiatry legal problems are never very far away, but suffering should come to the fore.
An example: child psychiatry
The minister also insists on child psychiatry, with the will that there be at least one post of professor of child psychiatry per faculty of medicine, and an increase in the price of this specialized consultation … Rightly so because this discipline is essential but even more unloved than the others.
“No way to send my son to the psychiatrist… He’s not crazy!” “.
It is in the name of this reply that doctors are always reluctant to entrust childhood problems to someone who, however, often knows how to relieve the heavy responsibilities of the job of parents. And it is true that there are reasons to consult. A child who does not sleep, has trouble sleeping, eats poorly, or even simply because he is still sick. Then, because he has a hard time learning to read and write, because he does not work or, conversely, because he is gifted. Also because he is too emotional which can result in anxiety, a refusal to separate from his parents or to go to school, shyness, aggression, tics or depression. sadness. Finally, relational life, that is to say the relationship with siblings or traumas linked to drugs, divorce or a family tragedy. You hear it, there are many good reasons to surround yourself with psychological help. Where to consult? You will have the choice between the public sector and the private sector. However, it is certain that this sector suffers from an image of high tariffs which for a long time confined the use of these treatments – often quite long – to wealthy or highly motivated customers. The public sector therefore offers the advantage of almost free care, but the whole profession agrees to say that it is “on the street”. What will happen when you or your child is in this care circuit? Well, first of all, careful listening to your problems, certainly not the solution at the end of the first consultation but, more likely, regular and frequent enough meetings to allow – most of the time without medication – to find the knot of the patient. problem. Because that’s probably the best way to illustrate psychological disorders than to compare them to a tangled rope where each member of the family pulls an end without trying to grasp where the knot comes from. It’s both as simple and as complicated as that, but if some knots are difficult to untie, we know in the navy that there are very few unbreakable ones.
And there again, there is always the solution to decide …
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