On May 24, 2024, the pediatric health and child health conference opened, following an unprecedented 6-month consultation process. What measures have been retained in the 2024-2030 multi-year action plan to improve the health of children and better meet their health, care and support needs? A quick overview.
The child is not a patient like the others
Every year, winter epidemics of bronchiolitis saturate pediatric emergency services for many weeks, putting a strain on the entire hospital system. Of all emergency room visits throughout the year, 27% concern children, or more than 5.5 million in 2020. Child health has its own specificities. Children are not miniature adults, but patients with needs, physiology, pathologies and expectations that are not the same as adults. Prematurity, rare diseases, genetic diseases, growth and development disorders, puberty disorders, etc. are a long list of health issues specific to children.
Since 2015, infant mortality in France is higher than the European averageplacing France at 22th European rank. From this observation was born the desire for a 6-month consultation process on pediatric health and child health. This approach was coordinated by a steering committee made up of 22 experts, health professionals and user representatives, and concluded with the submission to the Minister of Health on April 23, 2024 of a report “Investing in health of the child: a national emergency”.
16 goals to improve child health by 2030
The meetings were an opportunity to discuss issues relating to child health and made it possible to develop a roadmap for the period 2024-2030. Of the 6 areas of work defined during the consultation process, 4 areas were retained for the roadmap:
- Invest sustainably in prevention among parents, children and adolescents. And this in particular by strengthening the action of the first 1,000 days for early childhood;
- Improve the organization and health care of young people: currently, waiting times for pediatric or child psychiatry care are 6 to 18 months;
- More specifically improve the care and response to the mental health of children and adolescents. In 2022, suicide was the second cause of death among 10-25 year olds after road accidents;
- Position France as a leader in research and innovation in pediatrics and child health. In France, 350,000 children are listed in the rare diseases register. These are diseases for which there is often no treatment.
Around these axes, 16 priority action objectives have been described to improve child health by 2030.
What about children’s mental health?
The Covid-19 pandemic has particularly impacted the mental health of young people. In 2022, suicide attempts increased by 63% among 10-14 year olds and 42% among 15-19 year olds. Does the roadmap fully address the issues related to the mental health of young people? Not really consider UNICEF and around twenty associations which published an open letter shortly after the publication of the road map.
For these actors, it is becoming urgent and a priority that the mental health of young people becomes a national cause, with a national strategy dedicated to the mental health of children and young people. If the associations approve certain measures of the roadmap, such as the evolution of the MonPsy system or the strengthening of adolescent centers, they deplore a lack of structural means to respond to the real needs of young French people. According to estimates, 1.6 million children need psychological or psychiatric support, but only half would benefit from it.
Estelle B., Doctor of Pharmacy
Sources
– Child health conference: associations publish an open letter to denounce the absence of a national strategy for mental health. www.unicef.fr. Accessed June 4, 2024.
– Pediatrics and Child Health Conference: the 2023-2030 roadmap revealed. lesprosdelapetiteenfance.fr. Accessed June 4, 2024.
– Pediatrics and child health conference. sante.gouv.fr. Accessed June 4, 2024.
