Houghos

Hi all, soon to-be moving to Toulouse, my wife suffers from mental health and is under the community mental health team here in England, is there anything similar over in France? And how would we go about getting the support needed?
Looking forward to hearing some interesting answers. Thank you.

petitefrancaise

Airbus?
So apart from counselling you that perhaps an international move to a completely new place, new language (?) and knowing almost no-one is maybe not a great idea for someone fragile?

First step is getting medical coverage presumably through your work.
If you are on the Airbus side of Toulouse ( Colomiers/Leguevin/Levignac/B;agnac) then I would highly, highly recommend a Dr in Brax called Turkie ( google him) as your first port of call. He is a British trained dr but 50% french and has practiced in France now for ?15 years? . He should be able to point you in the right direction to get help and of course he speaks English. He's also super, super nice.
There are also 2 other GPs in Tournefeuille that are good and their English is great, but Dr Turkie is more approachable imo.
Expect to go through being re-diagnosed, to have different meds recommended once you see a psychiatre.
From experience with a friend in Paris, the mental health care in France is a million times better than the UK.

Houghos

Thank you for the info, do you know if mental health support is covered or partly covered by the "sécurité social/assurance maladie" ?

petitefrancaise

assurance maladie and also your mutuel.
However, once you've jumped through all the hoops and registered as "handicappe" (disabled) then anything to do with her condition will be covered 100% by secu. This could take a while.
You should bring as much information as you possibly can from the doctors in the UK. Get all the records.

dmu

In another thread you say you're both working, which is a good thing, as I was wondering how your wife would cope with being alone all day if you yourself are out working.
First port of call is a "Généraliste" who'll become your Médecin Traitant and who'll refer your wife to a specialist, at the same time as taking the steps to get her covered 100% by the Sécu. As pf says, this, like all ALDs, will take a while to set up. The Doc recommended by her will be able to point you towards support teams in the area. How is your wife's French? Even though it's Airbus country, Sécu-covered support might not necessarily be available in English....
All the best!

Houghos

Her French is coming along very well thank yiu and I am totally fluent as I spent 3/4 of my life out there.
Thank you for your helps.

EuroTrash

I believe it's also possible to nominate a specialist as your médecin traitant. MTs don't have to be généralistes. If you're both in good health physically, you might want to consider doing that. TBH I can't see any great advantage myself, but just flagging it up in case you didn't know, because a lot of people aren't aware that it's possible.

dmu

yes, according to the end of
https://www.ameli.fr/assure/rembours...ins-coordonnes
a specialist could be the wife's MT. You live and learn....
But would a mental health doctor be able to organise home visits by a généraliste if she's got a bad back (not impossible at her age, I'm speaking from experience) or flu, for example?
And for the OP, I would think a généraliste would be more logical as coordinator for himself....

EuroTrash

Well quite. I think a specialist might be a bit nonplussed if you go along with a bad back or measles or whatever, that is not connected to his/her specialism. Just thought it might be worth pointing out that in theory, you can.
AFAIK there is no reason why husband and wife have to have the same MT.

dmu

Hi again!
There's a new thread (#22) in the FAQs above, with info from HM's Government about "Living in France". Under "Healthcare", there's a whole section on mental health in France which should answer your enquiries officially.