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Thesis

French

ID: <

10670/1.42usra

>

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Who cares for the network ? : a tentative actualization of the institutional psychotherapy paradigm in the French mental health system

Abstract

In a context where psychiatry and more broadly the French mental health field seem to fail at caring for their carers, we wish to actualize the institutional psychotherapy (I.P.) paradigm in the light of the practices and discourses of today’s mental health professionals. Using a qualitative methodology, we compared the results of a document analysis we conducted on the writings of the major authors of the I.P. movement from the 50’s to the 80’s to the results of a field study we led in fourteen sanitary and medicosocial institutions, in which we interviewed 85 mental health professionals. Our research shows the current situation of the French mental health field has created a series of risks and opportunities for the sustainability of the I.P. paradigm, most notably a growing concern for workers’ Quality of Working Life, the influence of the deinstitutionalization paradigm, and the defiance surrounding the term « institution » itself, despite its rich and plural meaning. We transcribed, anonymized and analyzed the semi-directed interviews we conducted, and compared them to the eight « operators » of the I.P. movement which emerged from our document analysis. These operators help shed light on the questions which always lie under the organization of care for people with mental health issues : distinguishing between status, role and function ; considering daily life as having a therapeutic coefficient ; doing things together as the prime relationship structure between users and carers ; considering decision-making as a collective function enacted during pluriprofessional meetings ; freedom of circulation ; welcoming the singularity of patients ; trying not to further alienate them ; and finally “grafting openness” as a way to prevent the withdrawal of patients from their peers, and the withdrawal of the institutions away from the community. All these operators name important questions and problems mental health professionals deal with in their day-to-day practice with people suffering from mental health issues. We therefore offer to actualize the I.P. paradigm so as to help these professionals reflect on their practices and empower themselves

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