Devant l’augmentation du nombre de cas de COVID-19, l’Établissement Public de Santé (EPS) de Ville-Évrard a mis en place des mesures strictes pour minimiser les risques d’infection et pour assurer la continuité des soins. Dans ce contexte, il nous a paru pertinent de s’intéresser au vécu de la crise sanitaire par nos patients hospitalisés lors de la première vague.

Notre équipe a élaboré un questionnaire semi-structuré, composé de 8 items, permettant au patient de s’exprimer librement sur leur vécu de la crise sanitaire, de la prise en charge durant cette crise et du confinement.

Nous avons recueilli les témoignages de 12 patients en réponse aux différents items du questionnaire concernant leur vécu en abordant les différents aspects de la crise sanitaire, parmi ceux qui ont été touchés par la COVID-19 et ceux qui ne l’ont pas contractée.

Les réponses apportées par les patients aux différents items du questionnaire ont permis d’évoquer leur vécu de la crise sanitaire et du confinement. Nos patients ont fait preuve d’une bonne conscience de la complexité de la situation tout en se montrant coopérant à leur prise en charge et en respectant les nouvelles mesures mises en place.

Ce travail nous a permis de constater que le retentissement de la crise lors de la première vague a été globalement bien vécu par nos patients avec une prise de conscience satisfaisante des risques encourus.

Since the beginning of the health crisis, health care personnel have been confronted with an influx of patients with COVID-19. Given the complexity of the situation, the reorganization of care was done on an emergency basis to ensure careful management to limit the spread of the disease among health care personnel and patients. As patients suffering from psychiatric disorders were not spared, the Ville-Évrard Public Health Establishment set up a strategy to deal with this crisis by setting up a COVID+ unit specialized in the care of patients suffering from mental disorders and infected by the Coronavirus. Patients diagnosed as positive by PCR test were transferred to this unit so that they could benefit from a global management.

The aim of our work was to focus on psychiatric patients (whether they were carriers of the COVID-19 virus or not) on their experiences during the health crisis in the first wave from March to June 2020, during the first containment.

We have developed a semi-structured questionnaire composed of 8 questions, allowing to explore different aspects of the experience of the health crisis. We interviewed 12 patients (six patients affected by COVID-19 and six unaffected patients) with different mental disorders. The patients expressed themselves freely and their answers to the questions were presented question by question and separated according to the two groups. The first question was intended only for patients in the first cluster infected with the Coronavirus and the second question for patients with a family member infected with the virus.

For the first question, two patients among the six infected with the Coronavirus, expressed anxiety. For the second question, two patients in the Covid+ group had a family member who had contracted the virus. One patient felt guilty, and one patient was anxious. In the Covid− group, one patient whose spouse had contracted the virus was very worried. For the third question, in the Covid+ group, four of the six patients were compliant with containment, two patients were not. In the Covid− group, four patients experienced containment between home and the hospital, and two patients experienced the entire containment at home. Regarding the fourth question, all patients (in both groups) acknowledged that the health crisis had a significant impact on their lifestyle. In response to the fifth question, all patients in the Covid+ group talked about their stay in the COVID+ unit and its setting. For patients in the Covid− group, the answers were varied mentioning simple means of distraction. For the sixth question, all patients (in both groups) were globally satisfied with their care. Concerning the seventh question, all patients in the Covid+ group thought they had been sufficiently careful without expressing any fear about the risk of contamination. In the Covid− group, the answers were centered on the fear of contracting the virus in the hospital. The responses to the eighth and final question were marked by a glimmer of hope.

In the light of this work, the repercussions of this crisis, during the first wave, were generally well experienced by our patients, in the psychiatric environment, with a good awareness of the stakes and the risks incurred but also with a glimmer of hope for a resolution of the situation soon. Finally, most of the psychiatric patients in this sample behaved as respectful citizens during this first wave of confinement.