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Recently in Quebec, families have called for action after their children committed suicide and became “victims of a dysfunctional system” (Bernheim). The minister of health and social services, Danielle McCann, has decided to be open to opportunities to fix the system and prevent future tragedies. (Bernheim) One of the main problems facing the treatment of mental health today is the fact that you can’t predict when someone will commit suicide, and you can’t keep someone from committing suicide besides taking away their free will which is not good at all. Two of the main improvements that has been spoken about is allowing patients the free will to choose how they want to be treated, ex: medicine or therapy, and giving patients access to quality care (Berheim).

Another issue related to mental health that is particularly of interest is mental health in the workplace. There is a certain stigma surrounding mental health, and a study by RBC Assurances showed that 75% of workers choose not to discuss mental health with their boss or their co-workers (Pelletier). In fact, one of the reasons is because mental health can be seen as a hinderance to “professional success” because those with mental illnesses can be assumed “less productive or capable” as their co-workers (Pelletier).

Hopefully, an improvement of the treatment of the mentally ill in Quebec, along with a de-stigmatization of mental health in the work place will decrease the amount of suicides and mental health patients in Quebec.

Article (Berheim): https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/idees/568290/societe-pour-une-commission-d-enquete-sur-les-soins-en-sante-mentale

Article (Pelletier) : https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/11/14/sante-mentale-au-travail--le-dernier-tabou

Picture : https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/sante/201911/27/01-5251499-sante-mentale-ca-va-prendre-combien-dhistoires-dhorreur.php

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In September, l’ARS, the agency of health in Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin, and Saint-Barthelemy, released a project entitled “projet territorial de santé mentale de Guadeloupe et des Iles du nord” (Zubar). According to studies, 34% of the population in Guadeloupe have mental illness, and 25% are taking drugs to treat their illness (Zubar). This is a disturbing statistic to Benoit Servant, the project manager for l’ARS (Zubar). 1 out of 5 people suffer from mental illness, and by 2020, depression is going to be one of the “principal causes of the stopping of work” (Zubar). They defined mental health as “mental and social well-being” (Losbar). Servant says that mental illness is the “degrading of mental health” (Zubar). On September 9th, 2019, l’ARS met to discuss possible “plans of action” (Losbar). The idea of their new plan is to introduce new methods of therapy and try to reintegrate those with mental illness back into society so as to better treat mental illness. They hope that adapting treatment of the mentally ill to the society they live in will help to make them healthy again and keep others from falling ill. The cost of psychological treatment in France is roughly 23 million euros every year (Zubar). If all goes well with this new project, they can lower that cost.

Citations:

Zubar Article and Video: https://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/guadeloupe/projet-territorial-sante-mentale-guadeloupe-iles-du-nord-744333.html

Losbar Article and Picture: https://www.rci.fm/guadeloupe/infos/Sante/Changer-de-regard-sur-la-sante-mentale

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Belgium: TANDEMplus-A New Approach to Treatment

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Belgium: TANDEMplus-A New Approach to Treatment

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In Brussels, they have created a program to help psychiatric patients leave hospitals called TANDEMplus. The program came about because Belgium “has one of the highest number of psychiatric beds per capita in the European Union” (HRW2). The idea behind TANDEMplus is to be a guide to those who are in hospitals to help them get back “on their feet” (HRW2). There are many in Belgium who are forced into hospitalization, but only those who ask for help from TANDEMplus receive it. The founder of TANDEMplus says there are two main rules: “We don’t abandon someone and we don’t force someone” (HRW2). TANDEMplus can be called by the patient themselves, their doctor, or a friend, and they come to the home of the patient for an initial visit where the patient tells them if they want TANDEMplus’s help or not. If the patient consents to the visits, two people come to visit that patient everyday with the goal of helping them get their life back together (HRW1). TANDEMplus only works with a patient for about a month before they remove themselves from the patient’s life (TANDEMplus). They say that this can be tricky sometimes because patients tend to get attached, especially because those who work for TANDEMplus treat the relationship with patients more as a friendship than as a doctor-patient relationship. The short treatment time is because the goal of TANDEMplus is to simply help people organize their lives so that they can get back on their feet and live their lives outside of hospitals (HRW1).

HRW1- https://www.hrw.org/fr/news/2019/10/10/bruxelles-innovation-dans-le-domaine-de-la-sante-mentale

HRW2- https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/10/10/groundbreaking-advance-support-people-mental-health-conditions-belgium#

TANDEMplus- http://www.soins-domicile-bxl.be/professionnel/tandem-plus/

Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=126&v=e-tSuXO3UMY&feature=emb_title

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Belgique : Une équipe mobile fournit des soins de santé mentale

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There is a certain stigma surrounding mental health in most places, but especially in Senegal. In 2017, Senegal took some time to look at the way that they treated mental health and discovered that they don’t view it the same way they view other sicknesses (Diatta). Mental health tends to be “marginalized” in Senegal, and it doesn’t help that they have very few “specialized” treatment centers for mental illnesses, as well as very few psychiatrists to treat those with mental illnesses (Diatta). The minister of health in Senegal decided to create 2 guides for general doctors to help them with the treatment of mental illnesses. They say that even with these guides doctors will be hesitant to treat patients with mental illnesses because “they don’t seem concerning” (Diatta).

More recently, Senegal looked at the number of suicides they had each year in their country, and found the results alarming. L’Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (OMS) released a report that said that Senegal had 915 suicides the past year which equates to 1 suicide every 40 seconds (Sagna). This amount of suicide puts them 123rd in the world overall for their death by suicide (Sagna). Some of the more frequent ways of suicide were hangings, jumping in front of trains, and poisoning. Some say that simply identifying groups that are at risk for suicide is not enough and that an improvement of the treatment of mental illness in Senegal needs to happen (Sagna).

Article (Diatta): www.enqueteplus.com/content/prise-en-charge-des-patients-des-guides-pour-démythifier-la-maladie-mentale

Article (Sagna) : https://kewoulo.info/sante-mentale-915-cas-de-suicide-enregistres-par-an-au-senegal/

Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptRIyTNw4SY
(Very hard to understand and more to hear a Senegal accent)

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Médias: Voici la revue de presse des faits divers du 26 juin 2019 avec Kewoulo TV

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Algeria was colonized by the French, and in the 1950s, Frantz Fanon, a psychologist from Martinique, began working in Algeria. He noted a strong oppression in the colonialized society of Algeria and wrote books discussing the effects of colonialism on people’s psychology. He stated that mental illness could be a related to society and culture, which was a completely different view than others at the time who assumed it was all internal. He claimed that mental illness is more likely to be caused by an oppressive society, which is just what he faced when he worked in Algeria in the 1950s (Cherki).

In more recent times, Algeria held its first forum on the anxiety and stress. They revealed that stress and anxiety were the cause of 90% of chronic illnesses (Algeria). Diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBD), which currently affects many Algerians, were all tied to stress and anxiety (Algeria). They also saw a link with miscarriages and stress. One OB-GYN stated that pregnant ladies are most susceptible to the negative effects of stress in their first couple months of pregnancy. In her experience, stress in the first months lead to miscarriages as well as birth defects and other issues after birth (Algeria). They attributed the rise in IBD and miscarriages to a rise in stress of Algerians on a “personal and professional level,” and called Algerians to exercise more and eat healthily in order to reduce the impact of stress on their lives (Algeria).

Article (Algeria): https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190507-anxiety-behind-90-percent-of-chronic-diseases-in-algeria/

Article (Cherki) : https://theconversation.com/what-fanon-still-teaches-us-about-mental-illness-in-post-colonial-societies-102426

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Ebola and Mental Health

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The Democratic Republic of the Congo: Ebola and Mental Health

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In 2014, there was an outbreak of Ebola in West Africa. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, they have noticed that there were major psychological effects on survivors. Survivors “are left with profound guilt, depression and anxiety” (Payne). Many survivors are plagued by post traumatic stress disorder, and many had previous trauma, “including war and community and sexual violence,” before contracting Ebola (Payne).

At Ebola treatment centers, there are both regular doctors and psychologists. Patients obviously require aid from doctors to help treat Ebola, but they also need psychologists who can help them deal with their stress from being separated from loved ones, isolated because of the disease, and also the fear of death that comes with such a deadly disease. Psychologists at one specific treatment center see patients to treat distress and anxiety almost 3 times a day (Payne).

A group of people from “a Quebec-based distance learning university” went to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to study “complex trauma” (Payne). They are asking the world for “more psychological support” that they believe is needed to rebuild the communities that were affected by Ebola (Payne). They released a paper shedding light upon the work that psychologists do in treatment centers and commending those who risked their lives to help those affected by Ebola (Payne).

Citation:

Article: https://edmontonsun.com/news/local-news/after-ebola-the-world-is-learning-more-about-the-mental-health-needs-of-survivors/wcm/a64aba50-a112-41f4-86a1-3368743c09e6

Picture : https://edmontonsun.com/news/local-news/after-ebola-the-world-is-learning-more-about-the-mental-health-needs-of-survivors/wcm/a64aba50-a112-41f4-86a1-3368743c09e6

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1 in every 4 Nigerians has a mental health problem, but their health care system does not support their treatment (Mbamalu). Nigeria also has the highest rate of depression in Africa (Mbamalu).

Nigeria’s health care system is in shambles, particularly when it comes to their psychiatric hospitals. The government funded hospitals are understaffed and underpaid for the number of patients that come to them each day. Of the $372,000 promised to their psychiatric hospitals by the government, only 10% was actually given (Mbamalu). As a result, many psychiatrists are leaving Nigeria to get a job in a country with a better health care system and a much higher pay. Many of them go to the UK, and the number of Nigerian doctors in the UK has almost doubled since 2006 (Mbamalu).

The patient to physician ratio in Nigeria is 1 doctor to every 4,000-5,000 patients, and the recommended is 1 doctor to 600 patients (Mbamalu). In one particular hospital, they lengthened their hours so that the doctors could catch up with the number of patients they needed to treat. One patient had been waiting 4 hours to have a 5 minute appointment with her psychiatrist that should last for 30 minutes or more. According to the UN their population will double by 2050, and the crisis will only worsen if they don’t start receiving doctors instead of losing them (Mbamalu).

Citation:

Article: https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/nigeria-mental-health-problem-191002210913630.html

Picture: https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/nigeria-mental-health-problem-191002210913630.html

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In 2015, one in every fifty deaths in Luxembourg was caused by suicide (33 Steps). The statistics for 2016 show that suicide is declining in Luxembourg, but since the statistics for 2017, and 2018 aren’t out yet, it’s difficult to tell if suicide is really declining or if its just a fluctuation for 2016 (Leuck). Statistics show that men are 3 times more likely to kill themselves than women, and that the elderly are at a more heightened risk than teenagers (33 Steps).

In 2015, Luxembourg launched their suicide prevention program, building off of what Australia has used. It has 33 parts that focus on “the causes of suicide in order to implement targeted suicide prevention measures” (33 Steps). Part of it includes training for those in schools to recognize suicidal signs in students, awareness of mental health in the work place, “psychological autopsies,” and awareness of those who work in nursing homes of the increased suicidal risk of the elderly (33 Steps). According to statistics, 32 of every 100,000 elderly die as a cause of suicide, compared to 5 of every 100,000 teenagers (Leuck). They say that young people are still at a risk of suicidal thoughts, so efforts still need to be made to prevent them from suiciding (Leuck). Though the statistics so far seem to be promising, it’s still too early to know if Luxembourg’s 33 part plan is working.

Citations:

Leuck: https://today.rtl.lu/news/luxembourg/a/1323072.html

33 Steps: https://luxtimes.lu/archives/10528-33-steps-to-prevent-suicide-in-luxembourg

Image: https://stock.rtl.lu/rtl/620/rtl2008.lu/nt/p/2019/03/20/18/200c0745fd16b3a8d5b7d7c01e20a89e.jpeg

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Switzerland conducted a 24 year long study to determine which jobs were the most prone to suicide. They identified 82 professions that were at risk. They found that the most at risk were nurses, drivers, and laborers. There has also been a link between unemployment and suicide, more so than people with jobs, and strangely, bosses also are at a greater risk than most. The study attributed suicide to lack of promotions, and high stress situations (Pralat).

One hypothesis is that the weird hours of both drivers and nurses, combined with the rudeness that drivers face, and the high stress work and lack of appreciation that nurses face are the causes of their heightened risk of suicide (Pralat).

Those professions that are the least prone to suicide are women artisans in the textile industry, farmers, University and Highschool teachers, and those executives of the legal type (Pralat).

Each year, about a thousand people commit suicide in Switzerland. In 2016, Switzerland started their efforts to reduce the amount of suicide in their country (Pralat). They call their efforts “Parler peut sauver” which translates to “speaking can save” (Parler Peut Sauver). When the plan was brought up in the government, they came up with a 10 part plan of how to go about reducing the amount of suicide in the country and it included advising people about the resources available as well as teaching people about suicide and how to prevent it. They hope that it will bring the number of suicides to at most 700 a year (OFSP).

Citation:
Article (Pralat) and Picture-https://www.letemps.ch/suisse/suicide-travail-premiere-liste-metiers-risque

Parler Peut Sauver- http://www.parler-peut-sauver.ch/

OFSP- https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/fr/home/strategie-und-politik/politische-auftraege-und-aktionsplaene/aktionsplan-suizidpraevention.html#22_1480681425025__content_bag_fr_home_strategie-und-politik_politische-auftraege-und-aktionsplaene_aktionsplan-suizidpraevention_jcr_content_par_tabs

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France: A Dramatic Increase in Police Suicide Rates

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France: A Dramatic Increase in Police Suicide Rates

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Being a police officer is incredibly stressful, and unfortunately, suicide rates for police officers in France is incredibly high. Already in 2019 there have been at least 48 suicides, and people are worried that number is still rising (Schreiber).

“The worst year for police suicides was 1996 with 70 people dead” (Chapuis). In 2016, two police officers died after they set their car on fire and led to the creation of the group Mobilization of Angry Police Officers who seek to call attention to the problem of suicide that is common with Police Officers.

One police department in Paris suffered the loss of a 25 year old recruit who was found by one of the captains with a “bullet through his heart” (Chapuis). When the minister of the interior, Christophe Castaner, was questioned about it a day later, he announced the creation of a 24 hour hot-line specifically for police officers to have access to psychologists. He said that the causes of these suicides is hard to place. He recognized that there is “a passion of the uniform, but also a pressure of the uniform” (Chapuis). Though being a police officer can be stressful, there are often personal reasons that lead to suicide.

The exact cause of the rise in suicides is not known, but they’re hoping that anti-suicidal efforts and a new hot-line will help decrease the amount of suicides, and hopefully keep 2019 from being the worst year in history for French Police suicide rates (Chapuis).

Citation:

Article (Schreiber)- https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2019/09/10/suicide-dans-la-police-l-ensemble-des-syndicats-de-policiers-appellent-a-une-marche-de-la-colere_5508707_3224.html

Article (Chapuis)- https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2019/04/19/suicides-de-policiers-la-profession-se-mobilise_5452604_3224.html

Picture- https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2019/04/19/suicides-de-policiers-la-profession-se-mobilise_5452604_3224.html

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Quebec: A Decline in Suicide, an Increase in Awareness

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Quebec: A Decline in Suicide, an Increase in Awareness

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Quebec conducted a study to determine if their suicide rates were declining and found that from the years 2015 to 2016, the amount of suicides in Quebec has been decreasing, and they attribute this to the success of their suicide prevention program (Saint-Arnaud). In Quebec, their suicide prevention movement focuses on the importance of “talking about suicide and saving lives” (Comment Parler du Suicide). They have noticed, however, that the most suicides have come from “men, ages 50-64,” and they aren’t entirely sure why (Saint-Arnaud).

“The statistics show that 30 out of 100,000 men, ages 50-64, commit suicide versus the average 12 out of 100,000 of the rest of the population” (Saint-Arnaud). There have been theories that this generation of men thinks that admitting weakness and asking for help is “unmanly”, or men of that age are “being laid off from work” and see no other solution to their financial stress than death (Saint-Arnaud). There has been a direct link between socioeconomic standing and suicide. It seems that those who are less well off than others tend towards suicide more than those who are financially stable. The reason could be that those who are financially stable have more access to important resources that those “who may [perhaps] not have a phone” would (Saint-Arnaud).

The bottom line is that although the amount of suicides is decreasing, there needs to be a continued effort to diminish suicide, especially with men, ages 50-64.

Citation:

Article- https://lactualite.com/actualites/diminution-du-suicide-au-quebec-prevention-salutaire-selon-des-experts/

Suicide Prevention Website- https://commentparlerdusuicide.com/

Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=&v=HF3a4ykd8iE

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Parler du suicide sauve des vies - Dave Morissette, 2019

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Suicide is a major problem throughout the world, but especially in Belgium. Of the countries in Europe, Belgium in number 5 for the number of people who commit suicide every year. Each day, roughly 6 people die, which averages out to 17 out of every 100,000 dying as a result of suicide each year. As a result, a new campaign has been launched by the Center for Suicide Prevention in Belgium: “Tout le monde peut agir” (Everyone can act)

A psychologist from the Center for Prevention of Suicide says that “you should not hesitate to reach out if someone is suffering”. He says that if no one reaches out to listen, a person who is suffering is more likely to commit suicide.

One mother, whose son committed suicide, has decided to write a book to educate people on how to help those who are struggling with mental illness, but also to tell the world her son’s story. In an interview about the book, she talked about how when her son came to her to talk about his feelings, she gave him advice about what she would do in his place, but she says now that she shouldn’t have tried to give him advice because she “had not been in his place or experienced how he felt”.

The idea of the “Everyone can act” movement is that all it takes is one person to notice someone is suffering and listen to them, and hopefully have stopped one person from committing suicide.

Citations:
Article- https://www.rtbf.be/info/societe/detail_la-belgique-est-le-cinquieme-pays-d-europe-ou-le-taux-de-suicide-est-le-plus-eleve?id=10310869

Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=297&v=hznTw9UMCwc

Interview- https://www.rtbf.be/auvio/detail_journee-mondiale-de-prevention-du-suicide?id=2539752

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[Parole d'auteur] Betty Leruitte - Sa guitare et son chat