Chief physician in a university psychological aid office (Bapu) and member of the Association of Bapu Professionals, Emmanuel Weiss has been treating students in psychological distress for years. He denounces the glaring lack of means of care structures and the discrediting for the mental health of young people on the part of politicians before the health crisis.
Charlie Hebdo: If we’re not well, can we go to a Bapu for a consultation? But first, what is a Bapu?
Emmanuel Weiss : It is a medico-social establishment for students with psychological suffering. The first Bapu was founded in 1956, in Paris, on the initiative of the National Union of Students of France (Unef) and of the National Mutual of Students of France (Mnef). France has only 18 Bapu, which is very few. The last born was created in Corsica. There are therefore many large cities (Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon, etc.) which do not have one. The 1964 decree which formalizes the establishment of the Bapu states that their mission is to prevent and treat the psychological suffering of students.
Concretely, what does that mean?
This means that we are an organized structure to receive students who are doing badly and possibly offer them psychotherapies without upfront costs, because they are fully funded by Social Security. The Bapu are open to students, whoever they are. These structures have associative status, are independent of universities, unlike university health services. A young person in pain can push the door of one of our centers. This is also true for any high school student over 18. Everyone can come and consult in the Bapu of their choice. And this without a predetermined duration of psychiatric follow-up. It can range from a few sessions to sort out a problem up to several years. The average duration of care is one year.
Shouldn’t we communicate more about your existence and your missions?
The Bapu, where they exist, are known to those who are ill, either by word of mouth or through other professionals concerned with the mental health of students, such as university health services as well as other partners with whom more or less formalized care networks are organized. That said, the Bapu remain too little known, because too few in number, and it is common, it is true, that students who come to see me for the first time tell me: “It’s funny, I had never heard of the existence of the Bapu. “ Until now, the mental health of students has never been a public health priority, and the fact that the funding of the Bapu depends on the disability policy has probably not favored the promotion of their work. The fact that we are attached to the Secretary of State for People with Disabilities and not to the Ministry of Health does not help a great communication on our structures. The Bapu are not the priority of this Secretary of State.
The students demand the reopening of universities and express their mental suffering. From containment to re-containment, what do you see?
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During the first confinement, our premises had to be closed. We continued to work, but remotely, by setting up telephone or video sessions. The idea was not to lose the link with the people we were following, and therefore to continue to offer our services as psychotherapists. We were not inundated with calls from new students, probably because most thought we were closed. Only those who were in acute distress or in really difficult situations called on us. At the national level, a “Bapu Covid-19 cell” was set up to respond to urgent requests, the students who contacted us were able to obtain a telephone appointment within forty-eight hours. These were asking for additional sessions, when others wished to suspend them. The situation changed at the start of the academic year in September, then with the second confinement. We have since seen a marked increase in the number of daily calls: between 30% and 50% more calls for meeting requests.
Is there a specific psychological suffering linked to Covid-19?
Yes of course. Many students complain of loneliness, of a great impoverishment of social relations. There is also a demotivation with regard to studies. And then, there are no longer these informal links, the exchange of information between students, such as giving each other tips for an internship, dispensing with notes to photocopy if you have missed a class … Likewise, all social relations of the order of the approval, necessary to decompress, have disappeared. We no longer see our friends, the lack of parties limits any romantic encounters… The students have the impression that they are only working and not even getting there. Added to this is a great worry about the future because there is a total loss of meaning. The prospects for an internship, professional integration, choice of sector, everything is becoming blurry. Young people isolated, precarious, lost in their studies, there have always been some, but it was not so systematic.
How can you help them?
Well, by doing our job as a shrink! (Laughs.) By receiving them and listening to them. By trying to understand where their suffering comes from and why a shared situation is not experienced in the same way by everyone. It is a work of putting into perspective to get out of the traumatic situation. Indeed, many students are in a state of psychic astonishment comparable to what we encounter in the trauma clinic. Our role is to try to “de-amaze” them. It involves speaking and talking with a trained professional, who will not immediately try to fill in the gaps, to say to them: “Come on, get a grip on yourself, it will be better tomorrow, you are young, you have life. in front of you. »So many formulas that they hear everywhere and which do not help.
With additional psychologist positions and a “mental health check”, is the government measuring the mental health needs of students?
The announcement of the recruitment of 80 psychologists for university health services throughout France is better than nothing, but it is a drop in the ocean of distress. Currently, professionals are called upon far beyond their reception capacities. To be able to respond quickly and over time to all requests, additional resources are urgently needed. This was already the case before the Covid, it only got worse. We have been asking for these resources for a very long time, without ever obtaining them, no doubt because the mental health of students is managed by disability and because the subject did not concern many people. Thanks to the Bapu association, we have been able to create a Covid-19 listening cell, and other initiatives have been put in place, for example training in first aid in mental health or “health relay students” (who welcome and inform). Experienced structures and professionals are active in the field, they have know-how, ideas and take initiatives, with the means which are theirs, largely insufficient …
What should be done?
Rather than handing out a check for which we do not yet know anything about the details, it would be better to rethink the mental health policy aimed at students, in particular by increasing the resources of the care systems where young patients can consult regularly, for example. beyond a few sessions with a preventive medicine psychologist, for example. A Bapu like ours does between 10,000 and 11,000 sessions per year, for a budget of 1 million euros. A “mental health check” of 100 euros, distributed to 2.5 million students who request it, would allow each of them to do one, two or three sessions with a “shrink”. To deal with the emergency, why not, but if this measure were to become sustainable, it would make no sense. It would be better, for the same amount, to strengthen existing systems and structures and create them where they do not exist. With the same budget, France could create 200 Bapu. It’s a different scale, and it would be much more coherent, sustainable and efficient. ●
Interview by Natacha Devanda
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