Touched on during the previous debate, the issue of mental health finally had its airtime in the debate last Thursday. First to respond, the leader of the Conservative Party, Éric Duhaime, promptly affirmed that because of its importance, this issue should transcend partisan positions.
A little earlier in the day, the same words had been used by the PQ candidate in Taillon, Andrée-Anne Bouvette-Turcot, during her exchange with me. For her, mental health, like the question of sexual violence or medical assistance in dying, indeed required that the parties put aside their electoralism. “This is the reason why I entered politics and, regardless of the result of October 3, I will remain fully socially committed to this issue! »
Holder of a post-doctorate in clinical research, the psychologist recounts the real “cold shower” experienced when she started out as a clinician at one of the Batshaw Youth and Family Centres. “We hear the stories of the Youth Centers in the media, but when we are there, one thing is clear: our society, despite having the means, is not able to adequately support children and families in great psychological suffering. . »
In favor of a return to the CLSCs, the candidate also insists on the fact that, without the community, the improvement of our collective mental health is simply impossible. “We have to stop having a utilitarian relationship with the community, which we call upon to seal the holes in the system, without considering their expertise. »
The Liberal candidate in Pointe-aux-Trembles, Byanca Jeune, was quite surprised by my first question concerning the reasons underlying our current collective suffering. Frank and sympathetic, she went there from a ” Hi, bo-boy! Let me reframe my brain! » followed by a great burst of laughter. She then presented a set of elements, which, in general, joined the issues pointed out by the CAQ candidate the previous week, namely the pressure of performance and the breakdown of the family as a place of containment. Nurse and manager in the network, she comes to the same conclusions as her colleagues: the working conditions in the network must be improved for all caregivers.
Reminding her that it is under her party that the disintegration of these conditions has worsened, I question her on her decision to adhere to it nevertheless. It was the party’s inclusive vision that, she says, won her over. “The cuts were one thing, but it is also absolutely necessary to invest in prevention, to modulate the programs according to the groups they belong to, to help newcomers, in particular, while relieving the economic pressure on the middle class. Moreover, access to the universal psychotherapy program, his party’s battle horse, would be combined with secure funding for community organizations.
My exchange with doctor and emergency physician Karim Elayoubi, Conservative candidate in Argenteuil, left me more perplexed. Apart from the fact that, in line with his party’s platform, the candidate approaches mental health with a language marked by an essentially medico-biological presupposition, it is the reflections on the prevention targets that have most surprise.
A specialist in chronic pain, Mr. Elayoubi first spoke to me at length, in full knowledge of the facts, of a flagrant lack of services in this area. As a family doctor, he also explained to me the distinction to be made between psychopathologies involving “only a disorder of neurotransmitters” and others, such as personality disorders, where, there, “the talk therapy would be more advisable. »
Asked more about the socio-cultural factors potentially involved in our contemporary psychological suffering, the candidate then evoked the erosion of the social and family fabric in Western society, different from his native Lebanon, where “individualism was less widespread and where support of family, neighbors and the community was more present”.
The time of a blink of an eye, I almost had the impression of talking to a solidarity.
I quickly came back to reality when Mr. Elayoubi argued that, to prevent mental health, his party was planning three things: thirty minutes of physical activity a day for young people, $500 reimbursement for gym registrations as well as the famous summit on mental health.
As he cited, on several occasions, the models applied in Northern Europe to justify the “healthy competition between the public and private health systems”, I invoked the set of universal measures applied from early childhood in some of these countries, especially with regard to generous parental leave after childbirth. Mr. Elayoubi replied that during the summit, they would have the chance to hear from “psychologists, social workers, but also economists in order to target the bio-psycho-social factors involved in mental health”.
“This is such an important issue that we need to hear from the experts on the matter. »
Yes indeed.
So when, last Thursday, the leader of the Conservative Party invoked cross-partisanship in the area of mental health, I confess to having thought that, for them, it was not only desirable, but required.