Michel Barnier announced his desire to “double within three years” the number of adolescent centers in France, where there are currently 125 of these structures responsible for informing and supporting young people and their families.
These houses are systems financed by regional health agencies and local authorities.
Their mission is reception, information, prevention and health promotion, support and multidisciplinary care for adolescents, their families and the professionals around them.
The objective of the adolescent centers is to provide young people in difficulty with rapid, specialized support, close to home and to possibly direct them towards more specialized care.
The Prime Minister, who announced in September that he wanted to make mental health the “major national cause” in 2025, promised the “same order of ambition” as for past major causes on disability or cancer.
“I would like the first priority of this cause to serve to destigmatize mental illnesses,” he said during a trip to Vienna on the occasion of Mental Health Day, mentioning in particular future “campaigns awareness”.
Second “issue”, according to the head of government: “prevention” and “detection”.
“We are going to generalize training in prevention and first aid in mental health,” he declared.
To “strengthen primary care”, Michel Barnier also wanted to “develop, in conjunction with access to care services, psychiatry sectors making it possible to better guide patients and support them in their care “, which assumes “the commitment of liberal psychiatrists in the sector and associations”.
Another objective stated from Vienna: the generalization of “territorial coordination tools, such as local mental health contracts, which make it possible to organize pathways and promote the mobilization of local actors”.
On several occasions, the Prime Minister called for “decompartmentalization” and “working together”, “networked”, “at the service of the population”.
In the government, the Minister of Health Geneviève Darrieussecq, present in Vienne, “will lead the project (…) but it is not only her subject. This is why the minister in charge of interministerial coordination will ensure that all the ministries make mental health their business”, underlined Michel Barnier, mentioning education, housing and even sport.
He also thanked a trio working on the future great cause: the professor of psychiatry Michel Lejoyeux, Angèle Mallard, general delegate of the Alliance for Mental Health, and Daniel Fasquelle, the mayor of Le Touquet following these questions within of the Association of Mayors of France.
Furthermore, the head of government said he wanted to “intensify” the research effort on mental health.
He notably announced the launch of a call for projects, with a budget of 10 million euros as part of the France 2030 plan, “to bring about innovative digital health technologies such as home remote monitoring or equipment connected”.
It is “a major subject”, because “one in five French people are concerned by mental health issues”, insisted Michel Barnier.
