The Association of Psychiatrists of Quebec (AMPQ) is demanding that the future Santé Québec agency include a vice-president who will focus solely on mental health within its senior management. The group believes that these services and care should not fall under the umbrella of physical health – in the same way as surgery and emergencies, for example – or under the umbrella of social services. The Cap Santé Mentale organization supports the AMPQ, recalling that one in five Quebecers has a mental health problem.
The future president and CEO of Santé Québec must be named by the end of April. The Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, promised that he would be surrounded by a solid team of managers. The AMPQ believes that one of the agency’s vice-presidents should devote himself entirely to mental health. Currently, mental health programs are under the aegis of social services or physical health managers, depending on the establishment. Which gives rise to problems, according to the president of the AMPQ, the DD Claire Gamache.
“We are never the priority in terms of spaces and facilities,” she says. When we build a new emergency room, we plan a lot for resuscitation rooms and respirators, but we don’t always think about making good, safe places for psychiatric patients and staff — isolation rooms or interview offices with two windows. Our customers are increasingly agitated and disorganized in emergencies. » According to her, a “mental health branch” at Santé Québec would allow “thinking in a much more structured and organized way”.
A senior official could also ensure that budgets allocated to mental health are not used for other purposes, for example for “other programs in difficulty,” adds the Dr Olivier Farmer, who sits on the board of directors of the AMPQ. The vice-president could closely monitor the policies put in place. “There would be letters to the CEOs [des CIUSSS et des CISSS], and the performance evaluations of managers would be based on the achievement of objectives, says the psychiatrist. It puts a lot more pressure. »
Mental health: in the DNA of Santé Québec?
The Cap Santé Mentale organization, which represents around fifty associations of relatives of people with mental health disorders, also believes that the government must send “a signal that mental health will be part of the DNA of Santé Québec”. Its general director, René Cloutier, and the DD Gamache sent a letter to Minister Christian Dubé in January in which they noted “a gap in the composition of the transition committee”, namely “the absence of representatives from the field of mental health” among its members.
“The world of mental health is under-represented, underestimated in relation to the extent of the needs of the population,” laments René Cloutier, in an interview with Duty. It must be made a national priority since, currently, there is one in five people who have a mental health problem, which means that everyone, near or far, is affected. »
René Cloutier wants a vice-president for mental health to be appointed to the future agency, in order to bring together all “the stakeholders concerned”: health and social services, public security, justice, education and community organizations. “It takes strong leadership,” he said. If it is drowned out by the rest, it will remain a poor relation of the system,” he thinks.
In the office of the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, we recognize that “in the past, social services have been too often forgotten in the major changes in the health network”. “Our government will not make the same mistakes,” they say. “Now, the reflection on the internal organization of Santé Québec has begun, but is not yet complete,” continues the firm. The PCD [président et chef de la direction] will have a say when the position is [pourvu]. »
The cabinet recalls that with the adoption of Law 15, which created Santé Québec, each establishment in the health network will now have a social services department. “Then, for the first time, we went even further by creating a professional council in social services,” we emphasize.
For the AMPQ, it is high time to take a step back. “Advances in the field of mental health and psychiatry in Quebec have been slow and painful,” laments Dr.r Farmer. He cites as an example the intensive follow-up in the environment, a home care program intended for people with serious and persistent mental health disorders. “It is something that is being deployed, but it was long and very laborious, whereas, in other countries, we have the impression that it was going much faster, that there was a much greater government ambition, better financing, better monitoring. »