Tribune. There was a moment during this pandemic when a “psychiatric wave” had been noted. Mental suffering was then recognized. With the obligation to present a health pass for patients with scheduled care in hospitals, especially for medico-psychological centers (CMP), concerns for people with mental disorders seem to be relegated to the background.
How to accept that people in need of care and who go to the hospital can be turned away because they do not have a health pass? Not only is this positioning deontologically and ethically unacceptable for caregivers, but they could also be accused of a lack of care.
While the rights of psychiatric patients are the subject of sustained attention around isolation and restraint, with the health pass two constitutional principles are shamefully violated: the freedom to come and go to the hospital and protection of health by seeking treatment.
The obligation to present the health pass for scheduled care leads to several considerations:
Deontology and ethics
– The refusal of access to care without presentation of a health pass by patients consulting psychiatry is rejected by the majority of psychiatrists and caregivers for deontological and ethical reasons, especially as the need for mental health and Mental disorders were accentuated with the pandemic, especially among young people.
Accepting the request for care meets the ethical obligation to provide care on the part of health professionals, but also allows educational support to provide clear and appropriate information in order to allay anxieties about vaccination, especially when the dialogue benefits from the trust that exists between a patient and his doctor or nurses and greatly facilitates adherence to vaccination;
– The request for care of patients without a health pass can only be accepted given their vulnerability, while pursuing all the barrier gestures and health education well underway since the start of the pandemic;
– Certain psychiatric patients, and in particular in view of their cognitive disorders, may be unable to access vaccination or present a health pass, whether in paper or digital format. Not all of them have or know how to use a smartphone or they can simply forget to carry it with them to go to the consultation. Should we remind the authorities that the digital divide exists and that access to healthcare is not equal among the population?
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