2023-10-11 11:52:00
The history of Lebanese expatriates is not devoid of achievements that they achieve at every period, and they insist, wherever they go, on raising the name of Lebanon high among the nations. Professor Sami Risha, Head of the Department of Psychiatry at the Jesuit University, recently joined the list of expatriates who are raising Lebanon’s cultural and civilizational value by joining the National Academy of Medicine in France (ANM), becoming the first psychiatrist in the institution.
In an interview with An-Nahar, Risha expressed his happiness with this new role, stressing that he is the first psychiatrist to join the academy, but he is not the only Lebanese doctor in it. The academy includes many Lebanese. But Richa was unanimously elected as a corresponding member of the National Academy within the Department of “Medicine and Society,” which is the most prominent body of doctors in France and was founded in 1820.
Risha’s role will focus on participating in weekly meetings, answering questions posed by the French government, the Ministry of Health, or even French society, and providing medical suggestions to her. He points out that the academy discusses all medical issues that concern public opinion, the most prominent of which are: euthanasia, suicide, or even the lack of medicines in France, in addition to undertaking medical studies that address modern medical methods and scientific conferences.
In response to a question about the factors that contributed to his election as a member, Risha confirms that it was his Lebanese roots that played a fundamental role in his election process, as the French believe in the capabilities of the Lebanese doctor, in addition to his participation in many activities with the French, whether through the Faculty of Medicine at the Jesuit University. Or through the Hotel Dieu de France Hospital, “where we are keen to transfer the message and culture of French medicine to our hospitals, and I will seek to preserve it and the humanity in which the legacy of French culture is evident.”
But the task of preserving this humanitarian legacy faces several challenges, in Risha’s opinion, who stresses “the continuous work to spread it throughout the Francophone countries, the first of which is Lebanon,” pointing out “to strengthen these steps by inviting Lebanese doctors to give lectures and lessons to our students, in addition to sending them to France to specialize.” The condition for their guaranteed return to Lebanon,” he said, noting that “the Lebanese student is drawn abroad, leaving Lebanon an orphan devoid of medical talent. Therefore, our goal is to learn to enrich our country, not to leave it.”
Will this position impact the Department of Psychiatry in Lebanon?
Risha believes that “this position will develop the psychiatry department at the Hotel Dieu Hospital and the Jesuit University, through the use of French doctors and the application of humanitarian and medical standards,” considering that “psychiatry in Lebanon is advanced, especially in terms of doctors and their certificates, as well as their knowledge.” In psychiatry, the most prominent obstacle is the financial dilemmas that do not allow patients to be admitted to hospitals or even to continue their treatments.”
It is worth noting that Risha founded the Francophone Academy for People with Mental Illness, and previously assumed the presidency of the Lebanese Academy of Psychiatry, and published about 150 scientific articles in the most prominent specialized journals. He is a Francophone writer and has so far published two novels: Trois dont un de plus (“Three…One of them is too much”) and Le monde ne vas pas si mal (“The state of the world is not so bad”). Another book by him will be published in France and Lebanon next October, and it will be entitled “12 Clinical Cases in Psychiatric Ethics,” in which he discusses specific pathological cases with a focus on the importance of respecting the patient, his privacy and rights, and preserving the doctor’s ethical principles.
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