Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I always have trouble formulating a hypothetical answer when there are no data. I can speak from my clinical experience, though. I did work in psychiatry for 25 years and chaired the ethics committee. In general, patients with mental disorders want to live, get better and recov

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  As far as the guidelines are concerned, in fact, the Quebec Commission spéciale sur l’évolution de la Loi concernant les soins de fin de vie believes that the guidelines are adequate, if they are properly interpreted. In terms of operationalization, we have made a series of recom

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Suicide prevention is an important area to continue to work on, including providing access to care and continuity of care. There is clearly a ways to go in this regard. However, suicidal patients shouldn't all be lumped together. For suicidal patients where this is an expression

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  It is true that it's more complicated to make a prognosis for mental health. That said, it's complicated for some physical conditions too. Should this apparent complexity lead to the denial of MAiD requests, or should it lead to further consideration of the issue to define bette

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  I will give you a very concrete example. In 25 years of psychiatry and 30 years in a hospital setting, I've seen two cases where patients could have requested MAiD and might have succeeded in getting it. Given the current guidelines, it's impossible to get it at age 20 or 25. Mo

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  Actually, what we need to assess and what we need to avoid is therapeutic overkill, on the one hand. On the other, when we offer mental health care, we want free and informed consent, just as we would for any treatment. For consent to be free and informed, the person must be advi

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  If we respect the person's informed consent, that means we cannot force them to accept all care. Otherwise, it's tantamount to saying that we no longer respect their consent.

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  What I'm saying is that the MAiD request should not be seen as a failure of the health care system. When proposing health interventions, one must first have taken history of past interventions done with the person. Prognosis is hard to establish, yes, but it is possible to do it

Medical Assistance in Dying committee  First of all, I would like to sincerely thank the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying for inviting me to appear before you. My colleague and I represent the Ordre des psychologues du Québec, of which I am president. I am a clinical psychologist and neuropsych

Health committee  That has been one of our challenges during the pandemic. For people who were confined to their homes with spouses and children, it could be difficult for them to have an appointment virtually. You still need to have a confidential, calm and quiet space during a session. It has be

Health committee  You have to understand that mental health, compared to the rest of health, has always been sort of a poor cousin. But we have to look at health globally. We cannot underestimate the effects of mental health on people's overall health. Right now, there are two ways to get treatm

Health committee  Telepractice actually has some advantages. For one thing, it provides a secure environment. Second, it is helpful for some individuals who have difficulty getting around and who would otherwise not seek consultation. So telepractice still has some advantages. Almost all of our

Health committee  Okay. So we looked at two aspects. The first is a review of the research on mental health during COVID-19. The second is the observations of psychologists, members of our order, regarding the deterioration in the health of clients, both in the public health network and in priva

Health committee  First, my thanks to the House Standing Committee on Health for giving us the opportunity to talk about the impact of the pandemic on mental health. I am Dr. Christine Grou, psychologist and neuropsychologist. I am a clinician specializing in mental health. I am accompanied by D

Health committee  Okay. I'm accompanied by Dr. Isabelle Marleau, a clinician specializing in pediatrics. We will talk about the impact of the pandemic on mental health. We looked at two components for this. The first part is a review of the research on mental health during the COVID-19 crisis.