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Sabrina Philippe (Psychologist)
People without a residence permit are more affected by post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and suicidal thoughts. Back to the study by the Institute for Research and Documentation in Health Economics (IRDES).
“The prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder reaches 16% among people without a residence permit, while it is estimated at between 1 to 2% of the general population in France”, showed the IRDES. For Sabrina Philippe, a psychologist, migrants without a residence permit experience a “multiplication of traumatic factors”. They endured traumatic events both “in their country of origin, during the migratory journey and in the host country”.
Post-traumatic stress disorder: what is it?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that occurs after a traumatic event. They result in “moral suffering and physical complications that profoundly alter personal, social and professional life”, according to IRDES.
PTSD should be treated by a mental health professional, psychologist or psychiatrist. But how do you spot PTSD? According to Sabrina Philippe, PTSD cannot be seen directly in the individual.
The symptoms are often the same: increased feeling of fear, intrusive memories that will materialize in nightmares, dismissal of feelings, hypervigilance.
“When we have no paper, we are in fact in hypervigilance. The fact that these people are in an ‘irregular situation’ constantly plunges them back into the trauma. There is in them an almost permanent trauma of exclusion and arrest, of the order of violence”, affirmed the psychologist Sabrina Philippe.
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What to do for the people concerned?
In France, the State Medical Aid (AME) is a system allowing foreigners in an irregular situation to benefit from access to care. The AME entitles you to 100% reimbursement of medical care within the limits of social security tariffs, which does not guarantee psychological treatment.
“You should also know one thing; psychological issues always come after vital issues”, said Sabrina Philippe. “PTSD are disorders that can be treated very well, in particular by EMDR (therapy that heals traumas and phobias by eye movements from right to left, editor’s note)”.
The problem ? In France, access to mental health is still taboo. Between excessive cost and lack of representation, various factors hinder part of the French population from taking care of their mental health. It is all the more difficult to think about it for people without a residence permit.
But having recourse to a shrink is essential to recover from PTSD. “We need to reconsider post-traumatic stress. To deny it is like leaving someone with a gaping wound, which certainly cannot be seen but which hurts just as much.” concluded the psychologist Sabrina Philippe.