Health Minister Agnès Buzyn has released funds for psychiatry, “the poor relation of our health system”, in her own words. Professionals in the sector have been demonstrating for months in this direction.
The strikes and demonstrations eventually paid off. “In total, (…) this is an additional 100 million per year for psychiatry and mental health, starting this year”explained the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn to the brain congressgrateful “legitimate impatience” health professionals who came to listen to him. “I said as soon as I took office that psychiatry was the poor relation of our health system”, she justified on Thursday January 24.
This money will be used to…
In detail, 40 million euros will be released this year for the measures unveiled in June by the government. They are in addition to the 64 million euros from credits unfrozen exceptionally in their entirety in December 2018, as well as the 50 million euros extension promised at the same time.
Concretely, this money will be used to train students in first aid in mental health, to better prevent suicide, to develop child psychiatry, to strengthen “the supply of housing for people with mental disorders”, to improve support for people with disabilities. psychiatric patients in their professional life, launch a “mission on the development of medical-psychological centers (CMP)”, or even create a training course for advanced practice nurses in psychiatry.
Strikes and demonstrations
Tuesday, January 22, a demonstration was organized Place de la République in Paris to denounce the lack of resources in psychiatry. Several collectives of patients and caregivers in the mental health sector are at the origin of the movement, such as theUnion of Psychiatry (USP)the SUD and CGT unions or even the Collective 39.
They warned of the “trivialization of isolation and restraint practices which have multiplied over the past twenty years”, and campaigned to improve care and working conditions. The idea was also to allow the convergence of the many strikes that take place in different hospitals, such as recently in Amiens, Rouen or Le Havre. At present, a dozen psychiatric hospitals are experiencing movements followed by mobilizations.
A dramatic situation
“We want enough staff to be able to listen to patients and avoid dramatic situations where we find ourselves forced to lock them up, to restrain them”, affirms in Le Figaro Oriane Cayard, nurse at the GHU Paris psychiatry and neurosciences. “When I started in psychiatry 14 years ago, the conditions were already not great, but I knew the patients, they knew me, I was able to anticipate crisis situations. Now we can no longer manage to remember their surname,” she said.
The situation of psychiatric care has long been considered catastrophic in France. “More than 25% of psychiatric positions in hospitals are not filled. (…) The situation is tense and dramatic”, declared the president of the USP Pascal Boissel in Release.
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