Ebe a resource for other mental health professionals. In Landes, the peer-aid platform Espairs 40, supported by the departmental delegation of the Regional Health Agency (ARS), intends to support people suffering from mental disorders. Unable to open a center for people with addictions in Lucbardez-et-Bargues, Thierry Godin, president of the Cap addictions association, and David Daudignon agreed to set up this system.
The concept, inspired by “self-help” and Alcoholics Anonymous, aims to connect people with enough perspective on their disorder to share their experience, so that they can teach others to live better with it. “We say that the peer helper is bilingual. When he is trained, he will speak the language of the caregivers and that of the people he supports,” explains David Daudignon, coordinator of the platform. “The patient will more easily discuss with someone who has experienced the same ordeals rather than a doctor,” adds Thierry Godin, president of the association.
“The patient will more easily discuss with someone who has experienced the same ordeals rather than a doctor”
Behind these exchanges, the interest remains in supporting people suffering from mental disorders in an adapted care pathway or quite simply in getting them to engage in it. “These are very long things. People tend to want to stop their treatment. However, for certain pathologies, when we stop it, it doesn’t work at all,” continues the coordinator.
“We are added value”
The platform is therefore entering a phase of recruiting peer helpers. The two men hope to count on six of them to start. “They will then get down to business with training,” smiles Thierry Godin. First notions that they will then develop through contact with their interlocutors. “Mental health care evolves every day, so there will be updates to be made,” specifies David Daudignon.
To develop, Espairs 40 has targeted around forty health, social or medico-social establishments with which they would like to enter into agreements. The aim is to allow them to “test peer-help” without doing the work of caregivers. “We are added value. We will be able to support both the person concerned and the care team in difficult cases. Because we too have been faced with these difficulties. »
David Daudignon is a former user of psychiatry. He spent almost two years of his life there, while he was addicted to alcohol. Today in “recovery”, he says he has been “clean” for more than six years. “Not a drop of alcohol, a firecracker or a drug. I have my app that calculates my money saved and my life time saved. » At the time, when he found the “end of the tunnel”, a question came to his mind: “Why did it take me so long to get out of it? »
Through discussions with those around him – who listened “non-judgmentally” – he discovered the France Patient expert addiction association. And he himself becomes an expert patient, after certification obtained before a jury of the Assistance publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP). To the point of now working in the addiction department of the Intercommunal Hospital Center of Mont-de-Marsan and Pays des Sources. “My job is to listen. I don't give advice. I share what I experienced, what I tried and what worked for me. We are in personalized support. We don't realize but we have a suffering person in front of us. »
Understanding your illness
He hopes that the creation of this platform will allow certain people to “reveal” themselves in order to become a peer helper. The coordinator is, however, aware of the prejudices that weigh on these pathologies in society. “Saying “I have an alcohol problem” in France is still unacceptable. But then ''I have a mental health problem''… There is still a lot of acculturation to be achieved. It is a shared responsibility. »
Faced with this increasingly harsh society, certain countries have understood the benefit of peer assistance. “In Canada, they have been doing this since 1950. In France, we started talking about it since the beginning of the 2010s,” notes David Daudignon. Especially since this issue of mental health was highlighted during the Covid crisis. “Social media self-help groups have helped so many people. »
To prevent people suffering from mental disorders from hiding or feeling guilty, peer support appears to be an outstretched hand towards learning the care pathway and ultimately towards a better understanding of their illness. David Daudignon concludes: “Peer assistance is part of modern psychiatry. People don't realize that everyone in their life can have a mental disorder. »
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