Canada : A forum for the mental health of health professionalsA professionals

Physicians, psychiatrists, social workers and nurses met in Montreal on 28 April 2023 to propose an action plan to improve the mental health of those who care for the health of others.

Divine KANANYET/la Presse

This gathering, which focuses on the mental health of healthcare workers, is called the “Generous States” forum. Organised
by the Association des médecins psychiatres du Québec
(AMPQ), this forum was attended by 120 professionals who came together to propose various solutions, which will be collated by students from the Health Pole of HEC Montréal. Then to publish a book of proposals.
“If we have a solid action plan, I guarantee that I will promote
it so that it will be associated
with sufficient funds to put it in motion in the next year, in the next budget,” promised the Minister responsible for Social Services, Lionel Carmant, during his speech to the participants in the forum to the newspaper ”La Presse”.
According to the professionals, the mental health of care staff must be addressed as soon as they enter training. “We are in this culture of excellence, of not having the right to make mistakes,
of always having extremely high standards, and this leads to vulnerabilities. I’m used to saying that depression is taught in medicine at university,” said Dr. Claire Gamache, president of the AMPQ. She also indicated that we should focus on the arrival of these young professionals on the job market and ensure their support. “We really need to think about how we welcome new workers, how we support them, how we protect them, both from trauma and the virus. However, mental health issues are not limited to medical students but also to other care professions such as social workers.
Organisational measures
Well before the gathering of health professionals, the organising
committee conducted a series of interviews to present initial ideas for improving the mental health of health care workers.
This includes making decisions
individually as a professional
with a view to overall health, and that patients are in the right place at the right time. It is therefore
important, according to the professionals, to act upstream to avoid patients being on a waiting list, rather than trying to reduce it at all costs, and that organisational
measures could also be taken to avoid patients clogging up the emergency room “for nothing”,
such as giving family doctors
access to the plaster room.