The psychiatrists of the public hospital in the street to shout their fed up, demonstration planned in Paris this Monday morning. We talk about it with our guest, Clément Guillet, psychiatrist at the Chartreuse center and at the Dijon University Hospital.

France Bleu Bourgogne: Clément Guillet, you are used to asking your patients how they are. We reverse the roles this morning, how are you and how is the profession?

The profession is bad. Afterwards, for those who are in place and who work, we provide the service. Of course, we welcome emergencies. But there are indeed flaws revealed. And indeed, there is also a lack of vocations, since we have defects in the recruitment of doctors, and all this means that, in addition to short-term crises such as covid, there is ultimately a structural crisis in psychiatry. I have been working for ten years and I can clearly see that there have been difficulties for longer than the last few years.

This crisis of vocations will come back to it in a moment. Are you on strike today?

I will participate in the strike, but while working. I’m going to disengage, I think for half an hour, because we still have to provide a service. And then, I think that I put the patients first, even if I want to point out, and that’s in particular why I’m here, that there are difficulties and that we have to hear them** . **

If we leave Dijon, in our campaigns, the problem of deadlines is even more important.

Yes, it is important to point this out. In Dijon, we are still well off compared to other territories. I was able to work in Burgundy, Nièvre and Saône-et-Loire in particular. There, it was really the obstacle course to have access to basic psychiatric care. And in Dijon, there is a waiting time, of course, but I find that in other territories, rural in particular, it is very very complicated, while it is still extremely important care. In general, mental health is something that we may neglect and that we will consult late, when it is essential. On saw it during covid, mental health was impacted. Everyone has suffered from this and unfortunately, people are already looking for treatment too late. And if in addition we cannot offer them basic access, well then, we are really aware of the disasters.

Why ? Because it is a population that is quickly marginalized?

There are many things. First, there is the fact that there are certain patients who are marginalized in psychiatry. But there is also a global image of psychiatry, whereas psychiatry is no longer “flight over the cuckoo’s nest” as it has been represented. So in fact, there is both a movement that tends to take care of oneself in society, but an image of psychiatry that remains very negative. And this negative image, it can therefore be reflected in the political decisions that will result from it. Finally, it occupies less than other sectors.

You mention the effects of the crisis. Do we still feel them today?

Psychiatry is a specialty in its own right. It is very interesting for that because finally, it is the sounding board of society, that is to say that the facts, the social phenomena and the crises, we will receive them and see them in consultation or in hospitalization . So yes, during covid, I saw patients directly impacted by the crisis. Today, there are still people who have relapsed into alcohol, into depression, in connection with the crisis. But we are starting to be distant all the same. So there, we simply find the population we had before.

Are you short of arms? How many psychiatrists per month in Côte d’Or?

I do not have the estimate in Côte-d’Or, but on French territory, 30 positions for hospital practitioners are vacant. That is to say that the positions are open but they are not taken because there are recruitment defects which, in my opinion, are linked to a lack of vocation. And we come back to what I was telling you, the lack of image that this specific and yet very rich specialty can have.

What do you concretely expect from the authorities?

I think we need an upgrade, perhaps in terms of resources. Maybe some unions are calling for a specific Ségur, why not? I think that ultimately the specificity of psychiatry would require it. And then, beyond that, I hope there will be as it was during the covid crisis. Emphasis has been placed on mental health during the various confinements. There, I said to myself that there will be a final change in the image of psychiatry on French territory in general. And I’m afraid it will drop a little and so I would like this mobilization to also be, let’s say, a price of conscience in general for the importance of psychiatry and its importance for everyone. Since we all have a mental health that can one day fail, we always have the impression that it is happening to someone else with very specific populations. I see everything in psychiatry, I see marginalized people, but I also see senior executives. I really see everything. It affects everyone.