It is a disorder often observed after a war or an attack which today affects healthcare staff. Post-traumatic stress disorder can also strike those who have been on the front lines for weeks against the coronavirus and who have lost patients. The fear of a second wave is all the stronger. In addition to the demanding work, there is the fear of being contaminated or of bringing the coronavirus home. "Psychologically I am tired and scared," says Audrey, a nurse in Lille.
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2,500 calls for psychological support in one month
"We hold 12-hour shifts, inevitably we fall from fatigue, this is the case to say", continues the young woman. This exhaustion pushes caregivers to contact psychological support platforms. In one month, the association Care for Health Professionals (SPS) received more than 2,500 calls, as many as in two years. Professionals fear that it will get worse, after confinement.
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"When the curtain closes there is nothing left, this is the big void, the depression that many caregivers are going to have given a lot", worries the president of the SPS association, Eric Henry . "You really have to be hooked to get through it all without scars."
Looped events
Suffering, hallucinations, nightmares are signs of post-traumatic stress. The caregiver relives a loop event. "The event is seen again in image, in sound, always lived with the same emotional charge, which ends up being very toxic", analyzes Nathalie Prieto, psychiatrist.
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These experts plead for the installation of devices in each hospital but also for the caregivers who practice in nursing homes or in liberal. Anonymous and confidential decompression chambers to evacuate this emotional charge.