Washy Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 A friend of mine would like to relocate her mentally ill son out to France with her. He needs support and medication but is not totally incapable of looking after himself.Does anyone know how one can access either reciprocal mental health care, or the french mental health care system in general as this lad has dual nationality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Existential2 Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 WashyMy guess is that the accessibility and standards of mental health care in France may be just as variable (between excellent and appalling) as in UK, but ...From my own experience when in need I just followed the signs for the psychiatric hospital in the nearest large'ish town, asked for help at the reception, who were very welcoming and directed me to the consultants' offices, where a secretary arranged for me to see a consultant - and apologised profusely that I had to wait an hour for him to return from his visits !!The service was from that point on simply excellent. But (having worked in NHS for many years) very interestingly different ...- no real notion of "medical records" as far as I could see (to this day they won't have my home address !!)- seemed quite medically oriented - no psycholigists I could see in evidence, and when in later stages of recovery we asked about counselling, the reply was "well, of course we can arrange this if there's something you don't feel able to talk to me about" - which wasn't quite the point- was very "needs led" - no fixed timescale for repeat appointments (after the acute phase had passed), was left up to us to decide when we needed to see him again - and were always able to get an appointment the next day !And all free ... (apart from medication - which was dealt out surprisingly sparingly for France !!)But others will have had different experiences I'm sure.Best I can suggest is ask around (perhaps ask local medicins) for advice on helpful psychiatrists .. I'm sure there will be as many dreadful ones as there are brilliant ones such as we had the luck to meet !!Also another thought : the above relates to an acute mental health problem, if your friend has chronic problems, their needs/experiences of the French system may well prove to be different ...Best wishes to your friends !!Jean-Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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