A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #374 - Politics - Mental Health: Heatwaves and Psychiatry-Between Denial and Exploitation (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Heatwave episodes have once again highlighted the government's inaction 
regarding the most vulnerable members of our society. Extreme heat poses 
a specific threat to people suffering from mental health disorders-a 
topic rarely discussed, which comes as no surprise given the enduring 
stigma surrounding psychiatry and its chronic underfunding. ---- Yet, 
high temperatures are extremely dangerous for people living with 
psychiatric disorders: sleep deprivation exacerbates symptoms, and 
certain psychotropic medications can be altered by heat-with some 
becoming highly dangerous during heatwaves. Indeed, they can 
significantly worsen dehydration, impair the perception of heat or 
thirst, and disrupt the body's temperature regulation, notably by 
reducing sweating.

Lithium, in particular-used to treat mood disorders such as bipolar 
disorder-carries specific risks during heatwaves: the margin between a 
therapeutic dose and a toxic one is very narrow, and dehydration causes 
levels in the body to rise. In short, during a heatwave, the medication 
can turn into a poison, with consequences ranging from coma to death.

Ideally, coping with this situation would require very regular 
individual monitoring, allowing treatments to be adjusted according to 
weather conditions. However, given the current state of the healthcare 
system-and psychiatry in particular-such monitoring is impossible; or 
rather, it is reserved for a small economic elite with the means to pay 
for private care. In healthcare, as elsewhere, global warming 
exacerbates inequalities.

Psychiatry has been treated with the same disdain as other issues by the 
government, which has responded to this summer's dire situations with 
nothing but lies and denial. A recent Instagram post from the government 
account served as a reminder that those in power know how to exploit 
psychiatry to serve their own interests; on July 22, they published a 
post titled "How to manage eco-anxiety?" Beyond the sheer indecency of 
such a message coming from a government pursuing an ecocidal and 
incendiary agenda, this is a textbook-and crude-example of pathologizing 
a healthy, rational reaction for political ends.

The government's message does acknowledge that this anxiety is 
"legitimate," yet claims "the problem arises when this worry becomes 
overwhelming"-after all, we wouldn't want our healthy reactions to a 
mortal threat to drive us toward rash actions, such as-just to pick an 
example-overthrowing capitalism.

The heatwave makes the need to revitalize spaces for anti-ableist 
organizing even more urgent: it is by caring for our disabled comrades 
and fighting against ableism, social isolation, and precarity that a 
revolutionary and emancipatory approach to care can emerge.

Thomas and N. Bartosek (UCL Alsace)

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Sante-mentale-Canicule-et-psychiatrie-entre-deni-et-instrumentalisation
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