TVA will broadcast the documentary tomorrow Gaétan Girouard: shock wave, about the star journalist who took his own life on January 14, 1999.
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Produced by Jean-Philippe Dion and directed by Maude Sabbagh, this documentary (which avoids any sensationalism and pays a touching tribute to this “giant with feet of clay”) asks a damn good question…
To what extent should we respect the professional secrecy that binds psychologists to their patients?
What is more important: respecting this bond at all costs… or doing everything possible to save the patient?
PRIVACY: HOW FAR?
In public, Girouard seemed cast in concrete.
From the forehead all around the head, temerity to spare, no closed door could resist him. Like Yves Poirier, who pursues the accused with the obstinacy of a remote-controlled missile launched by a North Korean submarine, the co-host of I could brandish a microphone a millimeter from a boss’s face without blinking or swallowing.
But in life, Girouard was fragile.
He suffered from severe depression, the extent of which no one knew.
Gaétan Girouard had consulted a doctor a few days before taking action.
If this doctor had been able to tell Girouard’s partner that her husband was depressed, could she have helped him? If Gaétan Girouard had consulted a psychologist and he had spoken to his partner, would that have changed anything?
This is the question that Jean-Philippe Dion asks in his documentary.
An essential question that all those close to people who have taken their own lives as a result of depression have asked themselves.
It’s all well and good, the bond of confidentiality that binds doctors to their patients…
But when the person is at their worst, shouldn’t this pact of secrecy be broken for the good of the patient?
At what point does this pact contribute to isolating the patient even more, to locking him up even more in his mental prison, instead of helping him to free himself?
“The government will have to react, because there are clearly problems with professional secrecy related to mental health,” said Jean-Philippe Dion. It’s going to be my workhorse for the next few years.”
BREAK THE SILENCE
Imagine that your minor daughter consults a psychologist because she has dark thoughts. And you are completely ignoring this fact.
Shouldn’t you know that your daughter is considering ending her life?
At the same time, if people who are at the end of their tether have the excellent reflex to go for a consultation, it is precisely because they know that their conversations will remain confidential. And that we will not warn their loved ones (who, in some cases, are perhaps more part of the problem than the solution)…
In short, it’s not simple.
But we have to talk about it. This is what this fantastic documentary does, which you must see at all costs tomorrow at 9 p.m.
PS: if you have dark thoughts, please don’t hesitate and call 1 866 APPELLE.