Médecins Sans Frontières - Mental Health project in Brussels: Thomas,psychiatric nurse

Unique Identifier Code / URN MSB104165

Date taken / Date Recorded 01/10/2021 6:07 PM

Country Belgium

Commissioning section MSF-BELGIUM

Photographer / videographer / producer Julien Dewarichet

Copyright MSF

Usage Rights (MSF) Advertising Campaign, External Media, MSF Fundraising, MSF Publications, Social Media

Formal Consent Copy available yes

Editor's rating ★★★ (F)

Video format h264 (Main) (avc1 / 0x31637661)

Duration 1m51s

Maximum Size 1080px × 1080px 270.19 MB

Additional Information / Shotlist I'm like an ambulance. I am the first first responder but I go with my feet with my metro card.
My name is Thomas, I am a mental health nurse and I have been working on the Belgian MSF mission for almost a year.
My role as a psychiatric nurse is to act as a link between the patient and the various people involved. For example, I can accompany them to the hospital because they need to be hospitalised or to the emergency room because they are in crisis. It's important that I accompany them through all these procedures because it's a system they're not used to. We could explain things to them that they don't understand.
I communicate a lot via Whatsapp with patients for requests that are actually completely outside my job spec.. For example, they may ask me questions about how to get access to shoes or which bus they should take to get to such and such a place, and so I think that this spontaneity and availability also allows other things, another link. It's taking care of patients in a different way, but it's also just simply taking care of the patient.

I think it's important to discuss what we hear in our job, in my job. I go to see a psychologist twice a month and it does me a lot of good because it also allows me to get things off my chest. And I think that's very important to keep the energy and the motivation in the job on a daily basis, to try to understand why emotions are so strong and why some days you're more affected than others.

Mental Health project in Brussels: Thomas,psychiatric nurse | WEBCLIP Square NL

Mental Health project in Brussels: Thomas,psychiatric nurse | WEBCLIP Square NL