With tailor-made programmes that target mental health issues common among members of marginalised communities, Clinic Les Alpes offers a luxurious and inclusive space for healing. This Global Diversity Awareness Month, as we celebrate a variety of perspectives, backgrounds, and life experiences, the spotlight is on the Swiss clinic and its personalised approach.
In an era when mental health crises and addiction rates are spiking (especially among members of marginalised communities), treatment facilities are sorely needed, and detox retreats of all stripes are trendier than ever before. Clinic Les Alpes, an international inpatient clinic located at the foot of the Swiss Alps outside Geneva, offers a community of licensed mental and physical health practitioners who guide patients through evidence-based treatments for a number of conditions. They include anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and various substance abuse issues, all wrapped up in a historic and luxurious alpine chateau setting. It’s a type of wellness travel that harkens back to the days of sanatoriums, when travellers sought a cure for their ills by heading to the mountains for clean air and fresh scenery they believed to be healing.
But with its decidedly more modern take on medical wellness, Clinic Les Alpes is set up to accommodate people of diverse backgrounds with a wide variety of conditions. What’s most striking is that burnout is one of these ailments – this is a particularly pressing issue for people from marginalised communities, who often have trauma and discrimination to contend with in addition to the regular stresses of adult human life.
In fact, members of the LGBTQIA+ community are especially prone to mental health issues: recent studies of the queer community in the UK showed that within the last year, 52% had experienced depression. According to Clinic Les Alpes, this can fuel a desire to overachieve, which can lead to burnout. It may also contribute to substance abuse issues, another phenomenon more prevalent among members within the community than among those outside of it.
The same goes for people with disabilities, who, as studies have shown, are more likely to misuse substances than people without disabilities, especially in an effort to reduce pain or numb the mental effects of their condition. Clinic Les Alpes welcomes disabled patients with well-managed conditions – the facilities are fully accessible and in compliance with legal standards for health institutions, allowing them to accommodate guests with physical limitations, including those who use wheelchairs. The clinic boasts a comprehensive in-house team of medical professionals, but can also bring in external specialists when necessary.
It’s refreshing to see these unique needs acknowledged, and encouraging that Clinic Les Alpes takes a person-centred approach combined with evidence-based treatments, addressing each individual’s underlying issues. One of the greatest frustrations in receiving medical care as someone from an underserved population is the lack of understanding of needs and experiences that don’t fit the mould. As a matter of fact, this is part of the reason that such people may be hesitant to seek professional help in the first place. Clinic Les Alpes’ individualised “whole-person” approach appears to offer a solution for those previously left behind or overlooked. At OutThere, we find this particularly relevant during Global Diversity Awareness Month, a time to recognise how much stronger the world is because people from diverse backgrounds contribute to it. It’s also an opportunity to wonder what society might look like if members of underserved populations had always enjoyed access to personalised mental health care.
Programmes at the clinic’s fully medically licensed facility combine the power of both science and art. Patients work with a multi-disciplinary team of healthcare professionals, undergoing treatments that may include everything from art therapy and music sessions to equine therapy, yoga, medical detox, nutrition management, and more. Each programme takes place in the private facility tucked into the Swiss Alps that blends elements of the historic chateau with those of a modern treatment centre, offering luxurious accommodation and excellent hospitality.
For those who aren’t sure that inpatient care is right for them, there’s also the new Assessment Pathway, a 12-day assessment that provides a full picture of an individual’s psychological and somatic health. Patients then leave the programme with a thorough report detailing their condition, alongside a recommended treatment plan.
Because recovery is an ongoing journey, Clinic Les Alpes provides an aftercare programme tailored to each individual to help them ease the transition back to life outside the clinic. This may even include a ‘Journey Home Companion’, a person who accompanies the patient once they leave the clinic to provide support during this part of the process. This, to us, signals a 360-degree commitment to results-driven therapy. Too often patients ‘slip’ upon concluding treatment, and find themselves returning to it rather sooner than later. An accompanied, soft exit acknowledges that while a healing process can be successfully completed, the realities patients face outside of the treatment context can continue to be harsh and difficult to deal with. For those who come from marginalised communities, this is certainly the case – and their chances at sustained mental and physical health rise exponentially the more the societal conditions they live in are recognised and met with long-term solutions.
Photography courtesy of Clinic Les Alpes
