An autistic patient from the Cadillac hospital found dead, the CHSCT warns of the lack of staff

He was 33 years old. On Saturday afternoon, a young autistic patient at Cadillac Hospital was found dead. information revealed by South West
and confirmed to France Bleu Gironde by the management of the hospital center. The victim’s body was discovered at the bottom of a stream, one kilometer from the open care unit where she was being followed.

“This patient had been with us for eleven years”

“It happened at 4:20 p.m., we found that the patient was not in the unit before snack time”, says Philippe Marlats, the director of the Cadillac hospital. The care unit in question named “Seglas” is located on the site of Château Lassale. Located downstream from Lake Laromet, on the edge of the Euille stream, it welcomes eleven young patients suffering from infantile psychosis or autism.

Saturday, the teams of the hospital center then undertook research “in the park and near the farm. Not finding him, we looked beyond, and we realized that there were, near the river, his socks and his shoes”. The police dog teams stop at the edge of the stream. And it was the divers of the fire brigade who discovered, around 8:30 p.m. in the town of Laroque, the body of the victim at the bottom of the river. The hypothesis of an accidental fall into the river is currently favored by investigators.

“We immediately called the parents”explains the director of the hospital. “We had an internal CHSCT, a health and safety committee for working conditions with the trade unions and we of course informed the Regional Health Agency.”

Three caregivers for 11 patients on the day of the tragedy

Could the death of the young patient have been avoided? “No drama can unfortunately be avoided in the sense that we are on a free hospital unit”, says Philippe Marlats. “Psychiatry is not a prison”, adds Jocelyne Goût, the president of the CHSCT. The drama nevertheless revives the question of the lack of manpower in health and more particularly in the world of psychiatry.

On the day of the tragedy, only two nurses and a caregiver were assigned to the Seglas care unit. The workforce is the same on weekends and weekdays, specifies the management. Three carers for eleven young patients. Insufficient for the CHSCT which has been calling for human reinforcements for years.

“In psychiatry, beyond the lack of staff, it is important that the workforce is adapted to the location, the size of the unit and the number of patients. This is what can also raise questions, says Jocelyne Goût. This is an isolated unit that is not in the central portion of Cadillac. And the CHSCT has repeatedly pointed out that, given the situation of the unit, the workforce was insufficient. And our requests have not been acted upon by the Regional Health Agency”.

According to our colleagues from Sud Ouest, the family of the victim has decided to file a complaint in the coming days in order to determine the responsibilities of each in the drama. The public prosecutor of Bordeaux indicates that an investigation is open. The investigations are entrusted to the gendarmerie company of Langon and more precisely to the brigade of Podensac.