Doctors’ warning: “When madness is not accompanied by dignity, it can turn into rage”

Far from stigmatizing the mentally ill, 50 doctors, psychologists and patients denounce treatments that all too often fail. They urge a start and warn of the dangers of degradation of care. “When madness is not accompanied by dignity, it can in certain cases turn into rage,” they warn. Here is their platform.

“The recent events in Annecy, Bordeaux and Reims, committed by people experiencing great psychological suffering, make us think, apart from individual cases, about the deep and systemic reasons that encourage such actions. How not to put them next to the public service state, with health and psychiatry at the head of the demolition? Should we continue to put up with a tenfold increase in institutional violence, lack of acceptance, turning many care services into a veritable machine to crush the sick and those who care for them? The political use of each drama adds a double insult to the shame: it bypasses the efforts made by the teams to get the patients out of it; it overly stigmatizes vulnerable people.

In 2018-2019, specialists, psychiatrists and their relatives united within the Spring of Psychiatry to rise in the face of the catastrophe of mental health care that is not based on a welcome, a meeting, and an interest in human existence. Since then, no appeal has found a political outlet other than reprisals against whistleblowers, increased abuses, or grassroots government communications such as Assises de la Santé Mentale (2021). Due to lack human resources, due to lack of space and real political will, universal health care is on the way to extinction. Reception and outpatient services for children and adults are overcrowded. Thus, any prevention is cancelled.

At the same time, practices that are in principle exceptional, in full swing, fixation, isolation, hospitalization without consent, as well as this preferential care, which is the only purpose of treatment, often imposed, are becoming commonplace, including on an outpatient basis. — all without any real social support. It is difficult today to arrange admission to a psychiatric hospital, to demand help without drugs-isolation-pacification, even when people come of their own free will. Some caregivers themselves discourage their patients from being hospitalized and advise against going to emergency departments (if they are not already closed). Relatives, guardians, and families have no say and little influence over medical and administrative decisions made within the walls other than to engage in years-long legal battles against the administration.

Psychiatric restrictions, restrictions and isolation are not taken care of. When this or that is necessary, it is a heavy measure, which should always be accompanied by psychological help and in no case should it replace it. If not, this practice amounts to maltreatment. They held a grudge against white coats which grows, and with it fear of seeking help. In the mirror, professionals develop fear of communicating with patients, distrust, and fatigue. Cancel restrictions, massively reduce isolation, reasonably prescribe the necessary perspectives.

Universal security is an imperative, requiring public services for and with users, not against them, and respect for fundamental freedoms. The culture of obstruction and confinement must be questioned; this makes psychiatry odious and generates incomprehensible ethical suffering among professionals who are attentive to these issues.

After the tragedy in Bordeaux, the Minister of the Interior said: These acts of rare violence must be punished very severely so that they never happen again.. We say that this is a system of one rare violence which allows for the abandonment of people to their troubles and the possibility of such tragedies. This system should be very strict judge. Offering only short-term and too often very violent support, the pernicious options are being pushed by current politicians who don’t want to hear it: no deep questioning, no mental health plannobody telepsychiatry will not absorb this structural inhospitality, this doctrine of escalation and its abuses.

We must start from the experience of people who use psychiatry, their vulnerability and sensitivity, their desire to be really cared for and taken into account in society.

Nobody innovation digital or managerial can no longer hide irresponsible policies, planned deficits and their consequences: when madness is not accompanied by dignity, it can in some cases turn into rage. If suffering is not heard, no healing is possible. It is still necessary to recognize among its determinants the brutality of social, economic and environmental policies. Despair – a social project? »

Applicants

Dr. Yasin Amhis, psychiatrist, Reims; Dr. Mathieu Bellasin, psychiatrist, Paris; Dr. Laurent Bellachsen, psychiatrist, Paris; Dr. Philippe Bizouarne, resuscitator, anesthetist and parent, Nantes; Dr. Paul Bretecher, psychiatrist, Paris; Dr. Jean-Michel de Chezemartin, psychiatrist, retired head of department, Landerno; Dr. Patrick Chemla, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Reims; Dr. Sara Colin, hospital psychiatrist, Reims; Dr. Antoine Courtusse, psychiatrist, Boulogne-sur-Mer; Pierre Delion, Emeritus Professor of Child Psychiatry, Lille; Dr. Frederic Drogul, psychiatrist, Paris; Dr. Véronique Egal, psychiatrist, Grenoble; child psychiatrist Dr. Anne Enot Grenoble; Dr. Pascal Fovo, child psychiatrist, Bayonne; Dr. Philip Gasser, psychiatrist, Uzes; Dr. Mathilde Amone, Psychiatry Trainee, Paris; Dr. Geneviève Hainaut, psychiatrist, Le Mans; Dr. Marie Helene Lottin, psychiatrist, Ile-sur-la-Sorgue; Dr. Jean-Pierre Martin, psychiatrist, Paris; Dr. Pierre Paresis, psychiatrist, Lens; Dr. Edmond Perrier, psychiatrist, Strasbourg; Dr. Christian Sewer, psychiatrist, narcologist, Carcassonne; Dr. Naval Souissy, psychiatrist, Paris; Dr. Clement Vessier, Psychiatry Trainee, Paris; Katherine Skirej Hahn, President of Fil Conducteur Psy, Association of Families, Patients, Carers, mother of a suicidal patient; Laure Crignon, patient, Kemper; Linda de Sitter, clinical psychologist, Pôle Paris Center; Dominique Heimann, Grenoble, specialist educator; Delphine Rousseau, psychologist, Montreuil; Daniel Silva, clinical psychologist, doctor of psychopathology, Bordeaux; Marianne Barnel, clinical psychologist, Grenoble; Françoise Nye, right to health activist, Ivry-sur-Seine; Gilles Daven, specialist educator, Paris; Nadine Chartier, clinical psychologist, Tours; Yves Gigoux, psychiatric nurse; Aurora Gribos, psychologist, Besançon; Yves de l’Espinay, Head of Psychiatric Health, retired; Cecile Neffati Psychologist, Draguignan; Sandrine Bascole, clinical psychologist, Valence; Simone Molina, psychoanalyst, Cavaillon; Thomas Tolten, clinical psychologist, Montpellier; Sophie Musel, psychologist, Brussels; Stephane Chedry, psychologist, psychoanalyst, Argent-sur-Saudre; Serge Klopp, retired nurse, PCF representative at Printemps de la Psychiatrie, Paris; Joel Fritchi, psychoanalyst, Mulhouse; Olivier April, psychoanalyst, Paris; Jean-Philippe Pernet, nurse, Metz; Evelyn Perrine, President of Stop Precarité; Thomas Pio, child psychiatrist, Saint-Denis; Isabelle Amu, speech therapist at the Medical-Psycho-Educational Center; Annie Mandrow, Psychiatric Nurse, Paris; Camille Sherr, psychiatric nurse, Reims.