Helpless in the face of the growing distress of the people they encounter on a daily basis, more and more people from different professional, community or ordinary backgrounds are seeking training to learn how to detect certain signals, approach those who seem to be experiencing a difficult situation and offer them help by directing them to the right resources. These “scouts”, who receive basic training in mental health, are all links in a network of mutual aid and kindness that is being organized in Quebec.
It’s a scorching day. At the Rosemont library, we expect a larger crowd. Among those who will come to cool off there are families, seniors, but also people experiencing homelessness. Several of them are regulars. They come to warm up in winter, use the bathrooms to wash and take advantage of the tranquility of the place to rest for a moment in a safe place, far from the chaos of the street.
For other users, also increasing in number, the library has become the ultimate refuge from loneliness, a place of socialization which allows them to maintain contact with society.
“Before the pandemic, we already had a diverse clientele, but since then, we have noticed even more clearly the importance of libraries for all categories of the population,” summarizes Émilie Paquin, section head for libraries. of Rosemont and La Petite-Patrie.
The library’s mandate is to be a welcoming place for all, including the most vulnerable and marginalized, but this comes with its share of situations and questions that librarians were not necessarily accustomed to. People who carry all their possessions in bags or spend long periods of time in the toilet, causing staff to fear the worst. People who are intoxicated or who become “disorganized”, others who need to talk or who evoke suicidal thoughts.
Need to equip yourself
“Yes, we are civil servants, but the fact remains that people who work in libraries, in general, what they like is to offer happiness,” says Mme Paquin. “So, it is certain that, if someone is not doing well, they are not going to sit idly by, they are going to at least want to offer resources. »
Except that they are neither social workers nor psychologists and felt helpless in the face of all this distress. “Employees expressed a need to be better equipped to respond and interact with people experiencing homelessness or people who have mental health problems,” explains the librarian. She therefore called on the services of the relay team of the Éclaireurs program, at the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, which offers workshops and training in mental health.
These workshops, which were given to the entire team at the Rosemont and La Petite-Patrie libraries, were beneficial, says Émilie Paquin. This made it possible to ask questions, without taboo or censorship, to undo some prejudices, to validate certain interventions and to learn to recognize one’s limits. Not only did employees feel more comfortable interacting with customers, but the team itself was able to benefit from it. “Personally, I think it changed a lot of things,” she confides.
Deconstruct prejudices
The Éclaireurs project was created in 2020 to address the psychological distress of the population during the pandemic. “Initially, it was to get the population to adapt and have resilience in the face of the pandemic because it has been proven in the past that having a network of mutual aid and kindness can really help get through through disasters or pandemics,” explains Jodana Larochelle, speaker for the Éclaireurs relay team at the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.
What is psychological distress? How can we approach someone who is in distress? And we give them lists of resources because people are often helpless when it comes to that.
Post-pandemic, mental health needs are still acute. And the waiting lists for services are still as long as ever. The mandate was therefore broadened to include prevention and equipping people in the community to deal with these issues in their respective environments.
The program is offered in all CISSSs and CIUSSSs in Quebec, but everyone is free to determine how they wish to deploy it. Thus, at the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, we chose to create workshops open to all on different themes related to mental health. Those who wish can then take an additional two hours of training to become scouts and become part of the large mutual aid network, which currently has some 500 volunteers in eastern Montreal and around 9,000 for all of Quebec.
“We explore several prejudices that people may have in mental health,” summarizes Mélina Liberge, human relations agent at the relay team, who participated in the development of the training. “What is psychological distress? How can we approach someone who is in distress? And we give them lists of resources because people are often helpless when faced with this. Distress can be difficult to deal with. So, the goal is to equip them. If they see someone who is not doing well, they can at least give them a phone number.”
Growing demand
The small team notes a growing demand for workshops in libraries, but also in various environments, whether residences for the elderly, women’s centers, family homes, HLM and various professional environments in the entertainment sector. , customer service or civil service.
When they feel overwhelmed, scouts can contact the relay team for advice. The team also goes door to door with police services to visit isolated seniors and participates in numerous community events to scout, make themselves known and offer an individualized referral service. “We make sure to connect people with services, we will reassure them about the progress of their request, and then we pass the baton. That’s why we’re called the relay team, it’s corny, but that’s it! »concludes Mélina Liberge with a burst of laughter.
With Mathilde Beaulieu-Lépine and Pierre-Etienne Genest