TITLE:
From physical mobility to psychological mobilization: The benefits of changing location and caregiver in a mobile team for adolescent psychiatry
AUTHORS:
Sylvie Tordjman
KEYWORDS:
Mental Health; Adolescent; Mobile Team; Psychological Mobilization; Changing Locations; Changing Caregivers; Movement
JOURNAL NAME:
Health,
Vol.5 No.6C,
June
26,
2013
ABSTRACT: We have developed
a mobile team for adolescents with psychological difficulties that can intervene
within 48 hours, if necessary. Practically, caregivers working in pairs go
wherever the adolescents are (home, General Practioner’s office, etc.),
travelling in a motorhome designed as a mobile office. This method allows us to
approach more closely the adolescents and their families in the here and
now that corresponds to our societal evolution. Most of the adolescents
seen by the mobile team do not express any explicit demand but the demand is expressed
by the professionals in direct contact with these adolescents in difficulty
(school professionals, General Practitioners, etc.), who alert the mobile team
and solicit the adolescents’ parents to call the mobile team. One characteristic
of this mobile team is the mobility of setting (by changing locations,
including the use of a mobile office, and caregivers, so that multiple
representations are mobilized). Statistical analyses conducted on 520
adolescents followed by the mobile team showed that the first meetings tend to
take place in the family’s home, subsequently transferring to the mobile office
and finally in the community mental health centres. There is therefore a transition
from the living space (a place that is part of the here and now) to the
caregiving space (a space of thought and for thinking), with the
mobile office serving as an intermediate step in this movement towards
accessing care. Furthermore, there was a significant association between
changes of locations and continuity of care. Thus, there were significantly
more breakdowns in continuity when the consultations all take place in a single
location (family home, mobile office, community centre). The results and
their therapeutic implications will be discussed in this article, especially
with regard to the key role played by physical movement in psychological
mobilization, and by plurality of representations associated with different
locations and caregivers.