JLE

L'Information Psychiatrique

MENU

Eulogy for sectoral and community psychiatric medicine on the island of Mayotte. How to create a clinical approach to the unexpected in a context of crisis? Volume 98, issue 7, Août-Septembre 2022

Authors
1 Médecin psychiatre PH, service de psychiatrie, centre hospitalier de Mayotte
2 Psychologue clinicienne et analyste de groupe, membre associée de transition et secrétaire générale de l’Association européenne à l’analyse transculturelle de groupe (AEATG)
Correspondance : A. Joubin

In Mayotte, psychiatry has only been developing for four decades. It began in 1984, when psychiatric missions arrived from Réunion, and the field structured itself around a community approach. From 2001, the sectorization of psychiatric services gradually began to take place. In 2011, the island became France’s newest overseas department, a major change that contributed to a social, cultural, institutional, and political crisis. In this article, we explore the internal and external obstacles that the island’s first medico-psychological center has to deal with on a practical and organizational level. We shall mention both the resources and the perspectives that allow the creation of a common foundation for work, which is the only way to guarantee continuity of care for the population in a context where services, teams, and society are in perpetual movement.