Can you describe to me the structure in which you practice?
I’m working at Louis Pasteur general Hospital at Chartres. My job is with two teams: ELSA (care team in addiction issues) and Nutrition.
Which patients do you receive in this structure (pathologies and problems treated?
For addiction:
• at either nurses’ or doctors’ request, meeting with hospitalized patients that need some support for stopping or reducing their consumption. It’s mainly a help in tobacco, alcohol, cannabis and medicines’ addictions. I’m able to propose an external consultation.
• external consultation: support of patients that have been seen during hospitalization or redirected by tobaccologists or other professionals, or persons that made a spontaneous appointment without being oriented. Support in tobacco, alcohol, cannabis or medicines addictions. Very few addictions without product or heroine, cocaine, LSD… because specialized structures exist for these.
For nutrition :
• Support of obese patients wishing a bariatric surgery. Patients hospitalized 3.5 days for nutritional education: I interview them once and I lead a speaking group about emotional feeding.
Further, they make an appointment with me for an individual evaluation. I evaluate the mood, a eating disorder, an addiction problem, the personality and their motivation.
What are your theoretical currents and reference authors in this field?
My orientation is rather CBT.
What training did you take and what experiences were needed to support these patients?
I have an addiction specific formation, I’m trained for motivational interviews. As soon as I can, I attend to to congresses and seminars. I train myself as much as possible through e-learning.
What are the main difficulties you face in your job?
The main challenge at the hospital is to raise training finance.
What advice would you give to future professionals wishing to work in this sector?
In order to work at the hospital, it’s necessary to well observe the teams way of doing, to be well listening to them and to avoid imposing anything. Furthermore, you need to be curious, to show interest in the different somatic diseases that we can see during the interviews or during the team meetings. Supporting psychologically patients having health problems is much better when we have the most knowledge possible. You need to enjoy working with multidisciplinary teams and working as much as possible with other professionals, keeping the professional secret and keeping in mind that the patient’s well being is the priority.
Words I learned :
– Tobaccologist : tabacologue
– Congresses : Congrès
– Consumption : Consommation
Caroline SABBAGHA – M2 PCPI