Mulhouse. Mental Health: Postcards as Summer Therapy

At the beginning of summer, the Mulhouse Part-Time Therapeutic Reception Center (CATTP) for the elderly put out a call for postcards. Around sixty caregivers from the hospital, and others, wrote short messages from their vacation spots: enough to host reading workshops.

Have Simone, Mohamed, and Gérard ever traveled to Corsica, Barcelonnette, or Kyoto? They begin their conversation with nurse Pauline Walter. Photo: Vincent Voegtlin

Located in a completely unlikely location, on the edge of fields and the Red Sea in Mulhouse, the CATTP for the elderly has been traveling by proxy since June. A postcard panel at the entrance welcomes visitors to the Part-Time Therapeutic Reception Center (CATTP) dedicated to people over 65. The structure is part of the psychiatric center of the Mulhouse and South Alsace Regional Hospital Group (GHRMSA) . Patients, generally referred here after a hospital stay, are there for half a day. "We are really focused on therapeutic activities," explains nurse Pauline Walter.

Postcards arrive from all over France and beyond. They are read in workshops. Photo by Karine Dautel

The caregivers' appeal for their "One Card, One Smile" project was heard and acted upon. Many healthcare professionals took the time to send letters from their vacation spots, as well as schoolchildren (like Ava and her kittens in Saint-Tropez) and individuals, seemingly unrelated to the CATTP. "We received 65 cards, including six yesterday and today," Pauline Walter announced to the small group she was attending this afternoon of August 12, along with caregiver Scarlett Goux.

The images and text are shown to Cécile, who has traveled extensively in her life. Photo Vincent Voegtlin

Mohamed and Gérard, 80 and 93, already settled in, are cheerfully chatty and respond instantly. As for Marie-Christine, 69, and Simone and Cécile, 73, who arrived later in their ambulance, they follow the exchanges in silence.

The project aims to "maintain the patients' social connections. Even though most of them live at home, they are alone," notes the nurse. "Their only outing during the week is often at our house." Reading the postcards is an opportunity to stimulate memory; it "brings up discussion." Participants have before them a large map of France and a planisphere. Red stickers clearly indicate where the postcards have been slipped into mailboxes: the south of France, the Atlantic coast, the Alps... Further afield, they head to Italy, Tenerife, Nepal, and Australia. A perfect escape.

The red stickers provide an immediate glimpse of the senders' vacation spots. Photo Vincent Voegtlin

Pauline Walter holds the six new postcards. The first is signed by Alexandra. "Hello from Corsica for those who knew it and who will tell those who don't." Gérard immediately reacts: "I was in Corsica, near Bastia. It's been a long time, 60 years." And there he is, launching into a monologue about Napoleon Bonaparte, while the nurse sticks a new little sticker in the north of the Isle of Beauty.

Gaby, from Brunstatt-Didenheim, posted a drawing after canceling her vacation to Ventron in the Vosges Mountains due to bad weather. Huguette chose an illustration of a temple in Kyoto, Japan, for the CATTP seniors. Carole and Adeline sent a note from the Camino de Santiago. The next letter, from Barcelonnette (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) with its "beautiful mountains," curiously propels Mohammed toward the Cordouan lighthouse in Gironde, the oldest still in operation. "These are permanent memories of a pleasant time in the past," he says.

The third positive point for the therapeutic reception center is its openness "to the outside world, through a simple, warm, and participatory action," indicate Pauline Walter and her colleagues. Those who want to take up their pens can still do so. "You can write to us until the end of September. We will try to respond."

Postcards can be sent until September by anyone who would like to share a little of their vacation at the Part-Time Therapeutic Reception Center (CATTP) for the Elderly, 10 rue Édouard-Branly, 68200 Mulhouse.