Psychological consultations, legal advice, meditation… The “care center” supports healthcare professionals in distress

“With the Covid-19, the association has changed scale,” recognizes Pauline Dubar, head of the public health project at Healthcare professionals (SPS). An association which has offered, since 2015, a toll-free number 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, offering free and anonymous support for caregivers. “In 2020, we received 6,000 calls on the toll-free number, out of the 13,000 received since its creation, and we sent the Samu 17 times for suicidal risks, it’s not nothing! “, Insists Pauline Dubar, also spokesperson for the association. To extend this support, until now at a distance, the association wanted to open a space dedicated to these care professionals. It has just opened, on August 31, the first “nursing home” in Paris.

A unique place, since the objective, once is not customary, is to take care of health professionals. The health crisis has cast a harsh light on the distress of some of them, while studies, strikes, demonstrations and suicides at the hospital already revealed the harsh reality of jobs that have difficulty in recruiting.

Small group workshops and individual consultations

A few steps from the Arc de Triomphe, in the 16th arrondissement, this cozy place on three floors and 800 m² is shared between the SPS association and the Regional Union of health professionals of dental surgeons of Ile-de- France. After the entrance, you descend to the first basement, which has a large room with coffee machines, to accommodate training and workshops. But also a 70-seat amphitheater for future conferences.

In the second basement, small rooms will be used for individual consultations with a shrink or a lawyer, two others for practicing meditation and sports activities. “Those who want to return to direct work will even be able to shower! “, Enthuses Pauline Dubar, showing the premises. She hopes that this atypical place, which offers a holistic approach, all for free, is just the beginning. “The idea is to have one“ carers’ house ”per region. “

“That we can alleviate certain sufferings”

Who are these trainings and workshops for? “Liberals, medico-social professionals, hospitals, health executives, administrators, sophrologists, osteopaths, list Pauline Dubar. The goal is for everyone to meet, share their vision of the world of health, and that some suffering can be alleviated. “

One- or two-day training courses, two-hour workshops in groups of ten, or individual meetings with a psychologist or lawyer are offered. Here, we are talking about management, stress management, suicidal risks, sleep, rights and duties of health professionals, but also insurance contract.

“I loved my job, but it nibbled at me without realizing it”

“A la carte” support that François * considers precious. This 35-year-old nurse, on sick leave after a burnout, knows the association well and, for a few days, this new “house”. On Tuesday, he participated in a healthy eating workshop with twelve colleagues. If the health crisis has shed light on the reality of crowded services, the uneasiness of caregivers dates from before the pandemic. “I’m a good example,” says François. My fuse blew before. And luckily, I couldn’t hold out. I heard my colleagues say it was hell, the first wave of the coronavirus. “

“I loved my job, but it nibbled at me without realizing it,” he says. For ten years, he did not count his hours, but the deaths in his intensive care unit. “During my studies, I saw 17 deaths. In intensive care, after six months, I was at 500, I stopped counting, he sums up. Even if you quickly forge an armor, in the long run, it ends up weighing. “

“I know today that my health is important”

In addition to the daily difficulties, there is the deterioration of working conditions. “In five years, we were a quarter of professionals less. I have always had trouble saying no, especially when my manager was playing on the sensitive chord of solidarity between caregivers and patient safety… ”As a result, the nurse has accumulated 400 days and 800 hours of overtime. “I have worked seven weekends in a row. As much to say that to meet someone, to see his friends or his family, it became complicated … “

François became taciturn and addicted to drugs. “Partly to keep up with the pace. I started with the grass, to relax. I quickly switched to coke, to last the day, and opiates, to sleep. A slow descent into hell. One morning, he overdosed in the hospital bathroom. “My colleagues kicked in the door,” he continues. It was at the end of 2019. “If I had not been put on sick leave, I would have continued… and I would be dead,” he says.

“I found the desire to help”

It is in this slow reconstruction that he was able to count on the association, thanks to which he made a sport / health assessment, discovered yoga, participated in a training course on suicide prevention … “I know today that my health is important. François hopes this place will help other caregivers in distress ask for a hand. “We are not robots, nor supermans, he breathes. In ten years, I have seen five colleagues burnout, two suicide attempts and one suicide. And it was clearly linked to the job, to the pace, to the pressure. “

The problem is that caregivers sometimes have trouble raising the alarm signal. “It’s complicated, we are used to taking on the suffering of others,” admits the nurse. This is why discussion groups between caregivers seem appropriate to him. “Between us, we allow ourselves to talk more about our experiences, there is an intuitive understanding. I heard the beep of the sheave alarms months after having stopped working… ”Today clean and solid, François hopes to find his gown and his patients. Maybe not in sheave, but he “found the urge to help someone.” I would like to resume in therapeutic half-time in a “calm” department. If it still exists … “

* The first name has been changed.