[The debate within the CSN on the organization of mental health.]

The authors attempt in this article, to account for the political stakes in mental health which are in process of elaboration, among the C.S.N., and the discussions they generate in this national union. They describe firstly the implication of the unions in Quebec during recent years. Secondly, they outline the main events that led to actual government interventions in certain institutions. Then they establish the following facts: the extent of mental sickness, the desinstitutionalisation, the finality of psychiatric hospitals and the alternative resources. Lastly, they disclose the C.S.N.'s point of view on various questions: prevention, social réintégration, work, desinstitutionalisation and psychiatric hospitals' reform.