10 years ago, I started my university studies to become a psychologist in the public system with my ideals of justice and social equity in my backpack. I had no idea that I myself would be a victim of injustice by pursuing this career choice.
I work in a Quebec where the Prime Minister still believes that becoming a psychologist only takes a baccalaureate1, whereas we have to obtain a doctorate to obtain our title. Most people think I have a doctor’s salary, like a psychiatrist. If it was, my salary would be 300% 2 higher than the one I have now.
At 30, like most young people of my generation, I have debts, no house, no children and a diploma full of false promises. When I dare to raise my voice to say that it doesn’t make good sense, I am told that I should rather be happy to exercise the job of my dreams. Psychologist to the public, it is a profession practiced by a very large majority of women.
A psychologist is a woman who is supposed to listen and be kind, she doesn’t get angry, she doesn’t go on strike to deprive her patients of good care. It is satisfied with little. Well ! not for long for me. Enough is enough.
For several years, in our school service centres, colleagues have deserted to go to work in the private sector. I can’t blame them, because being self-employed in a firm comes with its share of advantages. The salary of private psychologists is more than 44%3 higher than that of public psychologists, even including all the benefits: retirement pension, insurance, vacation, etc. When I name this statistic to my colleagues who work in the network, we do not want to believe it, the figures are so staggering. I am told that we must have made a mistake in the calculations, that it is unimaginable, whereas it is the sad reality. In addition to salary conditions and social benefits, we should mention in passing other substantial perks in terms of quality of life, such as being your own boss and having the flexibility of a schedule allowing for a better work-life balance. work-family.
Encourage desertion
It’s one thing for our colleagues to go off to work in the private sector, but to add insult to injury, our employers subcontract these same people at the private rate to do the same job they did before their departure. So while I am doing my assessment in a school, my ex-colleague is paid 44% more to do the same work in her private office, because she had the good idea to resign from the public system. The phony excuse that we are given: there are not enough of you in the network to meet the growing needs of students, you have to seek help from your colleagues in the private sector… This is how public funding feeds the desertion of its workers and the privatization of the education and health systems…
Psychology waiting lists in school service centers and health establishments continue to grow over the years, while our ranks are shrinking.
Over the past 10 years, 490 psychologists have left the health and education network while 806 have returned to private practice4.
There is no shortage of psychologists in Quebec. Of all of Canada, our province has the highest number of psychologists per capita. The problem is that there are twice as many psychologists who work in private practice as psychologists who work in the public.5. The shortage of psychologists is found in the public system.
In the past, a school psychologist could practice his profession in a school and take the time to intervene with students and support the people who gravitate around them, to know the resources of his territory and to maintain valuable links. with external partners, whether at the CISSS or the DYP. We then had time to take care of the overwrought teacher, to teach the student how anxiety affects his learning abilities, to assess the suicide risk of a teenager in distress, to accompany the TES who must make a report to the DPJ, to guide the director in the formation of balanced class groups for the start of the school year, to equip poor parents with the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder of their child and more Again.
Now, when I call the CISSS or the DPJ, they ask me if I wouldn’t consider joining them, because the psychologist has become an endangered species that is torn from the public system. Today, school psychologists are doing psychological assessments on the line to obtain difficulty codes associated with budgets and dream of finding a job that recognizes the range of their skills. We can no longer help students as we should, we are nothing more than assessment machines at the mercy of a broken and sick system. The number of schools in our charge means that we are reduced to being only passing visitors with whom school staff and students cannot develop a real bond of trust.
From 1er May 7 was National Mental Health Week. The real change is to recognize the qualifications and expertise needed to practice the profession of psychologist. It means giving us the means to take care of our citizens of tomorrow.