Rights defender Claire Hédon calls for the establishment of an emergency plan for the mental health of young people. She considers that the means put in place are “largely insufficient”.
The Defender of Rights called on Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on Thursday to put in place an emergency plan for the mental health of young people in the face of “the seriousness of the situation”, considering that “largely insufficient” means are being deployed.
“While 2022 has been designated the European Year of Youth, the Defender of Rights, Claire Hédon, and her deputy, the Defender of Children, Eric Delemar, call on the Prime Minister to take full measure of the seriousness of the situation in which many young people and to act quickly to ensure that the mental health of young people is a priority,” she said in a statement.
The Defender of Rights had already warned in November about the state of the mental health of young people undermined by the health crisis, with an increase in depressive disorders and insufficient psychiatric care, in her annual report on the rights of the ‘child. “Public Health France unfortunately proved him right by publishing alarming figures on an increase in emergency visits for suicidal gestures, suicidal thoughts and mood disorders among 15 to 24 year olds”, underlines the press release, deploring that “yet, some structures continue to close beds in child psychiatry for lack of personnel and means”.
29 recommendations
“The lack of care for mental health disorders and the resulting breaches of rights constitute an obstacle to the proper development of the child and to his best interests, which two years of epidemic waves have contributed to aggravate in a very worrying way. “, continues the text. “While the peak of adolescent hospitalizations in 2021 is not coming down, the situation of some of these minors remains dramatic, as the care is sometimes unsuitable”.
For the Defender of Rights, it is necessary “to get out of fragmentary and strictly sanitary approaches”. In her November report, she made 29 recommendations to tackle this problem, including improving childcare facilities, developing “parenting support” and opening “adolescent homes” in each department. .
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