Méditation et prévention des risques psychosociaux chez les personnels hospitaliers en santé mentale

Abstract

Hospital's staff, in all occupations, are frequently confronted with work's situations revealing psychosocial risks (increased stress, aggression within teams with heightened conflicts resulting in reduced communication, or aggressive behaviour by patient's families). These situations contribute to a deterioration in the quality of life at work, and create a risk of repercussions on patient care. From this observation emerges a need to develop preventive approaches in order to overcome these difficulties. The various staff of the mental health unit of the hospital of Cannes were offered a three-month meditation workshop. Defined as a practice that “directs one's attention in a particular way, that is, deliberately, at the moment, in a non-judgmental way to things as they present themselves” (Segal, Williams and Teasdale, 2016) , meditation promotes a reflexive consciousness of its immediate experience, consisting of sensations, emotions and cognitions, promoting more behavioral flexibility. So, once a week during forty-five minutes, they were invited to enter into intimacy with themselves, and to concentrate on different points of attention (breath, thoughts, sounds, body, etc.). Then, a time of discussion was devoted to the feeling concerning the experience. Beforehand, interested mental health's staff were offered various questionnaires: mindfulness predisposition, aggressiveness, impulsivity, scales of stressors and stress. These questionnaires were again proposed at the end of the twelve sessions to assess possible changes. For persons who have completed the twelve sessions, results showed a decrease in the stress level for the same level of stressors, as well as a decrease in aggressiveness for a participant. For another participant, there was an increase in the level of mindfulness predisposition, as well as a decrease in the level of aggressiveness and impulsivity. Finally, in another, it was observed a decrease in the levels of stressors and stress, impulsivity, as well as an increase in the mindfulness predisposition. These first, encouraging results underline the validity of this type of intervention in hospital services. Other studies will allow to assess its effects on a wider sample, and to have some measures concerning the persistence of its effects several months after the intervention.