SMQ 49-1 Printemps 2024

This Spring 2024 issue of Mosaïque is blooming with articles reflecting the dynamism of mental health research in the French-speaking world and our shared challenges. The issue opens with two studies looking at the impact and lessons to be learned in delivering services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Justine Fortin and her colleagues gave a voice to 18 women with breast cancer to learn more about their recommendations regarding access and quality of psychosocial services to meet their needs. Alexis H. Truong’s team examined burnout, secondary traumatic stress and psychological distress among community workers and managers in Quebec. According to the authors, the solutions suggested by the results to prevent the weakening of psychological health should be more collective.

In addition to sanitary crises, other growing global phenomena include natural disasters, which undeniably have a significant impact on the mental health of individuals and communities. To better understand them, Louis Jehel and Mathieu Giguère applied an artificial intelligence-assisted psychophenotyping method on data from 40 people over a 20-month period, to extract psychopathological and psychiatric aspects linked to traumatic natural hazards (lahars) in the commune of Le Prêcheur in the French West Indies. The results show that rumination and negativisation are important psychopathological aspects, as well as cognitive and emotional avoidance after the disaster.

An important model of care in Quebec, the Programme québécois pour les troubles mentaux (PQPTM) frames the organization of services in steps. Quentin Bet and his colleagues examined one of these steps, self-care, with social workers. Their results identify various factors facilitating or hindering the implementation of this program, related to the intervention, the practitioners, the organization and the service users. To support the implementation of recovery-oriented services and interventions, it is essential to document the experience of those concerned. Laurence Roy’s team conducted a study exploring “les expériences en logement des personnes en début de parcours d’utilisation de services psychiatriques: spécificités et enjeux développementaux/the housing experiences of people at the beginning of their psychiatric services: specificities and developmental issues.” Their findings underline the importance of taking action to prevent homelessness among young people early on when receiving mental health services. This in turn involves several key players.

The last three articles focus on physicians during residency and in practice. In their paper, Sara Echater and colleagues raise, through their study, the importance of advancing awareness of addictions to psychoactive substances among resident doctors in Morocco, which are proving to be frequent and can have a number of impacts on their lives and health. Not only is it important to support the student experience, but also to offer new pedagogical possibilities in training. Kevin Zemmour’s team has developed and tested a “nouvel outil pédagogique de simulation 3D d’hallucinations auditives, cocréé avec des entendeur(-se)s de voix: étude pilote auprès des résident(e)s en psychiatrie/new pedagogical tool for 3D simulation of auditory hallucinations, co-created with people who hear voices: pilot study with psychiatric residents.” The aim of this immersion is to better understand the experience of people with auditory hallucinations and, ultimately, empathy in relationships.

Psychiatrist Vincent Laliberté closes this spring’s issue with an account of his practice in regions and his hard-hitting observations on homelessness and mental health outside urban centers. A thought-provoking perspective on how to better support these particularly vulnerable people.