French team documents the pandemic’s mental health toll
By John Leicester, Nicolas Garriga and Thibault Camus
The Paris-based team of reporter John Leicester, video journalist Nicolas Garriga and photographer Thibault Camus produced an extraordinarily candid all-formats package that takes AP readers and clients inside a French psychiatric hospital where psychiatrists find themselves on the front line of the pandemic’s mental health fallout, treating suicidal young adults driven to despair by the privations of the pandemic and crushing solitude of lockdowns.
Medical staff have a team meeting in the emergency ward of the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. The staff treats suicidal young people driven to despair by the crushing solitude of lockdown and the bleak outlook for millennials. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
Psychiatrist Olivier Guillin, center, talks with Nathan, a 22-year-old student, at the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
Books and a Rubik’s Cube sit the bedside table of Nathan, a 22-year-old student, in the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
A patient looks through a window at the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in the Normandy town of Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
A patient makes a phone call from the emergency ward of the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
A patient walks down a corridor of the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
A board reads “suicidal crisis” in the emergency ward of the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
The emergency ward’s chief psychiatrist, Sandrine Elias, center right, attends a team meeting with medical staff at the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
Emergency ward medical staffers take a break at the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
A patient sits in his room at the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
Emergency ward medical staff accompany a patient to his room in the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
A patient sleeps in his room in the emergency ward of the Rouvray psychiatric hospital in Rouen, western France, Nov. 25, 2020. – AP Photo / Thibault Camus
France has proved a challenging environment for reporting the pandemic, with public health authorities reluctant to open hospital doors to international reporters. But after the recent breakthrough of embedding AP journalists for 24 hours in southern France’s biggest hospital, the Paris team secured a full day of access to the 535-bed Rouvray Hospital Center in the Normandy town of Rouen.
Leicester was allowed to sit in on sessions as people poured out their anguish to psychiatrists. Garriga shot interviews in a way that protected patients’ identities but also enabled them to speak freely to the AP team,including a young student who plunged back into deep depression after the fight against COVID-19 diverted resources away from her treatment. And Camus discreetly wandered corridors with patients, capturing the sprawling establishment’s quiet and otherworldly feel in a riveting photo package.
