In a report submitted Wednesday, November 17 to the President of the Republic, the Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, warns of the urgency to protect the mental health of children, in particular undermined during the Covid-19 health crisis, which has “put these issues in the spotlight”. She brought to light “the lack of support for mental health disorders, the lack of healthcare professionals and adapted structures, and the resulting breaches of rights”, component “an obstacle to the good development of the child and his best interests”.
The first confinement demonstrated “a general increase in depressive syndromes”, notes this report. The crisis in particular caused “a doubling of cases among 15/24 year olds”, as indicated by the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics of the Ministry of Health in March 2021. They were 20% to declare a depressive syndrome in 2020 against 10% in 2019. The report notes notably “insufficient consideration of harassment between students” and “the difficulties encountered at school, which have a direct impact on their well-being”. According to this report, “beyond school, other factors” have played a role in worsening children’s mental health, such as “access restrictions to cultural, sports and leisure centers”, provoking “anxiety, stress, depression and eating disorders”.
Claire Hédon declares to franceinfo that there is “an urgent need to act”, and not just by “piecemeal and strictly sanitary approaches”. The environment in which the child evolves, his family, his life at school, his emotional relationships, his living conditions or even social networks must be taken into account in a global mental health policy, “in accordance with the approach adopted by the WHO”.
On the health side, “25 departments are not provided with child psychiatry, and among those who have it, this care is only on an outpatient basis”, points out the Deputy Defender of Rights, the Defender of Children Éric Delemar. He adds that “During the health crisis, children in great suffering ended up in pediatrics, where there is no adequate infrastructure” to welcome them. The report calls for massive investments “to develop support and support offers, follow-up proposals, places to listen”.
Among its 29 recommendations, it therefore proposes the creation of children’s homes, on the model of homes for adolescents, with a more global approach, the increase in the resources granted to the maternal child protection network (PMI), the strengthening of school medicine, and education in the rights against bullying at school.