Better funded healthcare provision, increased prevention... What the parliamentary report on the mental health of minors recommends
A young patient in a psychiatric day hospital, France, March 13, 2024. CHRISTINE BIAU/SIPA
An "ambitious policy" for the mental health of minors : a report, voted on Wednesday, July 9, by the National Assembly's Children's Rights Delegation, recommends a graduated, better coordinated, and better-funded range of care, as well as increased prevention in the family, school, and digital environment.
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After six months of work and around forty hearings, a fact-finding mission, co-led by Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé (Horizons) and Anne Stambach-Terrenoir (La France insoumise), notes the gap between the growing need for care and the "constrained supply, linked to the shortage of health professionals, to a territorial disparity as well as to a reduction in hospital resources" , and "often illegible for parents" .
In unison with previous reports and feedback from professionals, they highlight the "harmful consequences" (late treatment, increased use of psychotropic drugs, emergency room congestion, etc.) and each insist on the "urgency" to act, in a year where mental health is a "major national cause." It is estimated that half of psychiatric disorders appear before the age of 15.
Consolidate existing healthcare provisionIn its 54 recommendations, not all of which are shared by the two co-reporters, the report recommends consolidating the existing healthcare provision "rather than developing new systems and increasing the number of expert centres" .
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