Throughout the country mental health professionals have been protesting for several months. In Rouen, eight of them even went on an 18-day hunger strike. The mental health workers are not protesting to get a pay rise but are instead concerned about the quality of the care and loss of meaning in their work. While staffing levels are falling, patient numbers are constantly on the rise: between 1991 and 2003, they increased by 62% for general psychiatry, with an annual increase of three to five %. It can take patients years to get an appointment.
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For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers or Sanne van der Gaag, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the Head of communications at the ETUI, Willy De Backer wdebacker@etui.org © ETUI