"When I see a truck, I want to throw myself under it ..." This was what Marie, a 41-year-old nurse, "morally and physically exhausted", said to the psychologist she recently reached the toll-free number from the SPS association - "Care for health professionals" - dedicated to caregivers in distress. A very little known platform, while the hospital environment is suffering from an unprecedented crisis: one in two caregivers is affected by burnout , according to a recent study!
This Monday, in Villepinte, in front of a hundred doctors and various health professionals, SPS will present its toll-free number and its other prevention devices. Objective: "Better care for caregivers", sums up Catherine Cornibert, director of actions at SPS.
A public specifically concerned by ill-being in the medical environment: in the nearby Robert-Ballanger hospital, twelve doctors have resigned, including the head of the emergency room. A service on strike since last July, saturated because designed for 40,000 passages per year, but which received ... 75,000 patients last year.
10% calls with suicidal overtones
"70 psychologists trained by us are listening to caregivers via our toll-free number, which was created more than three years ago", explains Catherine Cornibert, who regrets that "the platform is finally little known, due to lack of communication health authorities about it ”.
The first assessment is alarming: since its inception, it has received 4,300 calls from nurses, doctors, mainly women. "On that, 10% contain comments with a suicidal connotation! "
In the transcript of the appellants' remarks, we discover Jeanne *, 39, exhausted by her 90 hours of work per week who "no longer finds any meaning at work", another in a state of post-traumatic stress after the physical assault of a resident of a psychiatric unit during which she thought she was dying, or this thirty-something in depression who "cries before going to work". There is also this doctor "in burn-out " who is afraid "to take action". All say that they can no longer "treat patients properly".
Of these calls, "30% come from Ile-de-France," says Catherine Cornibert, who specifies that it is the only region with which SPS has signed an agreement. The community paid 120,000 euros in subsidy to SPS.
Lack of city doctors, patients fall back on emergencies
The sign, according to Farida Adlani, vice-president of the region (MoDem) in charge of health, that Paris and its suburbs are complicated territories to practice in health. "It must be remembered: this is a medical desert, the city doctors are not replaced, so the patients turn to the emergency room, which clogs the system," first analyzes the elected official, also assistant. to the mayor at Villepinte. Who develops: “In working-class neighborhoods, medical time is not the same as elsewhere: the caregiver does everything: he cares, he is a social worker, psychologist, sometimes administrative assistant… for the same billing. So, they crack! "
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A year ago, a practitioner at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny, committed suicide by throwing himself out of the window, after having put on his work clothes.
Because, according to the expression devoted assuring that "the shoemakers are always the poorest shoes", the suffering medical staff "is not well looked after" in the hospital, estimates Farida Adlani - herself a nurse by profession. “It is now shameful for a doctor to say that he himself needs care. The height! It is a reality, but many hospital managers do not hear it, ”she continues. However, she also says, the risk of ill-being for caregivers is then "that patients are poorly taken care of".
Contacted, the ARS Ile-de-France recalls its own panel of devices to prevent suffering at work. First, the establishment, in 2015, of a “conciliation and conflict prevention unit”, which aims, among other things, to resolve “disputes” at work that could cause suffering for the staff of health.
A quality of life at work “cluster” was also deployed in certain establishments, as part of an experiment on 18 sites in 2018, which ends this year. The continuation of this test is planned.
Finally, the ARS also reminds us to “financially support” the SPS association and its toll-free number, about which the ARS communicates via the support portal for health professionals whose… the page is being updated.
Toll free number: 08.05.23.23.36
* First names have been changed
"I resigned, feeling the burnout coming"
Jean is still a radiologist at Robert-Ballanger hospital, but no longer exercises any responsibility as head of department. "Feeling the burnout coming, I preferred to submit my resignation as a supervisor to the management, who, in any case, never received me to discuss this problem", summarizes this practitioner, who will be present Monday evening at Villepinte to exchange with other suffering colleagues.
While the establishment is in the midst of reorganization, he should have "remained chief", but without any responsibility for the service, under "control" of his colleagues at the partner hospital in Montfermeil. “And this, without possible negotiation, without discussion… It hurts morale: the hospital becomes a large administrative and saturated thing, where we do not know who is in charge. That was the trigger for my resignation, ”he explains.
More generally, he describes colleagues "who crack", "are tired H 24". He asserts: "Here, wear and tear is the norm, one could almost say, if the situation were less alarming, that burnout is part of the curriculum in the health sector", quips the radiologist, who describes "always more patients, always less personnel and means". And above all, "no aid system for carers". "The SPS hotline, I didn't know it existed! Caregivers' medical follow-up is poor. "