Welcome

Jean de Kervasdoué, Raymond Lepoutre

The Mental Health in France Publication date : March 1, 2002

Psychiatry has reached a turning point.
To meet the needs of our society, psychiatry should develop in order to concentrate less on serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and manic-depressive psychosis, and focus on the despondency of an-ever growing number of patients. Such a reorganisation of psychiatry will have numerous medical as well as political and social consequences.
How can the treatment that is provided adapt to the new demand? How can clinical practice and psychiatric institutions evolve? What is the future of a division by sectors? What will be role of hospitalisation? How can the transition to day-care be accelerated? How can medical and social workers be helped in their task? What can be done to improve the integration of psychiatry into the general healthcare system?
The twenty specialists included here — Édouard Zarifian, Jean Maisondieu, Alain Braconnier, Sylvie Baron-Laforêt and Alain Vanier, among others — were brought together at the instigation of the Mutualité française. Representing a wide range of mental health disciplines, they offer the reader their thoughts and opinions on the future of psychiatry in France.