Testimonial | Why is psychological suffering ignored?

The author reacts to Patrick Lagacé’s column on the suicide of young Amélie Champagne published earlier this week¹.

Georgia Vrakas
Psychologist, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychoeducation and Social Work at UQTR

I read Patrick Lagacé’s text on the suicide of young Amélie and I cried with rage. There are no words strong enough to express how shocked and saddened I am by this news.

Unfortunately, this is neither the first nor the last such story that I have heard. Minister Lionel Carmant tells us that there will be an investigation. Allow me to tell you that I remain very cynical in the face of the concrete consequences of such an investigation since there have already been some before… but alas, here we are again.

Amélie’s story came to seek me deep within myself, because you see, I was in a similar situation in the spring of 2021. I was then experiencing such an intense depressive episode that I wanted to commit suicide. . I was in so much pain that it was physical. I came close to taking action, but changed my mind at the last minute, because I realized what I wanted was to stop suffering, not die. I went to the hospital the next morning to be seen in the psychiatric emergency room. I was afraid of myself and for myself. I had prepared my list of symptoms and my story, which I told to the psychiatric nurse. Unfortunately, I did not feel listened to. I felt a condescension from the nurse who explained to me that my sadness was due to my recent separation and asked me what I wanted someone to do to help me. I replied, confused, that maybe a change in my medication would help. To my great surprise, the emergency doctor discharged me with the prescription that I myself had suggested to the nurse!

By the way, changing my antidepressants made me worse since I ended up having bipolar disorder, not depressive, and I was in worse pain than before I went to the hospital. The only good thing that came out of this visit to the emergency room was the follow-up then done by the integrated liaison, support and follow-up service (SILAR) of the Suicide Prevention Center (CPS) in Quebec City. It is thanks to the CPS of Quebec that I was able to get through this period of great distress while waiting for my appointment in psychiatry.

I am very lucky, because I had the help of the CPS, my family doctor who worked very hard to get me taken care of by a psychiatrist. I felt listened to, understood and supported in the process of my recovery. I am very lucky, indeed, and I would like everyone who needs it to have this chance. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to have access to psychological help in Quebec today.

I am very aware of the shortage of mental health professionals in the public network, including the psychologists of which I am. This shortage has a detrimental effect on timely access to services. In physical health, however, we find ourselves in a completely different universe. You see, if Amelie had presented to the ER with pain in her chest, she would have been seen immediately and given the full battery of tests available to make sure her heart was okay. However, we do not give the same treatment to people who experience psychological pain because even today, there is still a lack of understanding of mental health and psychological suffering. And also, there is the stigma. We are not immune to prejudices about mental illness and suicide, even as health professionals.

Until psychological suffering is perceived as being as valid, painful, dangerous as physical suffering, we will find ourselves living in similar situations.

To doctors and nursing staff in the emergency room and in hospitals: when someone tells you “I want to die”, “I want to kill myself”, “I tried”, believe them. Believe them. Listen to them. Ask for an assessment of psychological state and suicide risk from those who are trained to do so (for example: psychologists, social workers). Ensure post-hospitalization follow-up. We never let a person who has made a serious suicide attempt leave with only a prescription. Why ? For the same reason that we would never let go of a person at imminent risk of a heart attack: the danger of death is real. So why are these two people treated differently? The question…

As long as our decision-makers don’t consider mental health to be as important as physical health, things won’t change, no matter how many coroner’s inquests. I sincerely hope that our next government will really, concretely make mental health a priority so that we can work upstream rather than end up repeating the same story.².