The work of Déborah Seghin and her colleagues is concrete. “We support people who are in distress towards employment. Whether it’s because of burnout, addiction, depression, bipolar disorder, etc. Our mission is to remove for them everything that can prevent them from having access to employment. For example, a person who has to go to an appointment by bus and who has anxiety when taking the bus, we accompany them.”.
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At AIGS, we didn’t think things would end so suddenly. “After the elections, we were told that as there was a risk of our service disappearing, we were placed on protective notice. There were then back and forths with the Jeholet cabinet and that of Yves Coppieters (Minister of Health Workers in Wallonia – Editor’s note) on which some of our jobs depend. I believed in it, even though it seemed obvious to us that the new Walloon government was going to get involved.”explains our interlocutor again.
On the side of Pierre-Yves Jeholet’s cabinet, we consider that the AIGS did not do what was necessary to continue even though it was entirely possible. “Le Forem has decided to change things a little by launching a call for projects to continue this mission. We checked at the firm if AIGS was eligible for this call for projects and it was. I don’t know why she didn’t participate.”explains the minister’s spokesperson.
Déborah Seghin explains that “Forem had said it wanted to launch this call for “mental health” projects to recover us if the government decided to remove it. “We decided not to respond to it because the signals coming from the cabinet seemed positive and then the conditions of the “call for projects were very complicated”she explains.
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The firm says it is even more difficult to understand why AIGS did not respond to this call for projects.that it was planned to increase aid to job seekers with mental health problems since the new version went from 500 people helped to 1,000″.
“You saved me”
Déborah Seghin deplores “a great waste”. She is especially worried about people who were supported and who will no longer be. “We can refer them to their Forem advisors, but they do not have the same support options as usshe concludes. I think of Mr. C., 56 years old. He broke down in tears when he heard the news. When I met him three years ago, he was locked in a bitter battle with his property manager and living without hope of ever returning to work. Today, he has a permanent contract, is undergoing therapeutic treatment and the judge even gave him a chance to manage his own assets. ‘You saved me,’ he told me. And now he wonders how he will survive without our meetings, these moments when I helped him find a little clarity. I also think of young V., whose daily life is an endless struggle against his psychosis, and of the hopes of his parents who still dream of a “normal” path for their son.”
