Tribune. The summer holidays have started, and we have in mind a feeling of saving carefree life for the children. We all hope that the summer alleviates the frustrations and suffering of children due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, seen from the doors of the Robert-Debré hospital, located in the north-east of Paris, the situation is not improving.
Since September 2020, we have been welcoming twice as many children for psychiatric emergencies. Some are depressed, anxious, emaciated, sleepless, and others, more seriously, threaten their lives. Each month, we see two to three times as many children under the age of 16 attempting suicide, compared to the same period over the previous ten years.
Since the start of the pandemic, March has been the most difficult month. Emergency calls did not abate in May or June, and the first days of July are a bad omen.
France’s courageous policy to limit the closure of schools will not have been enough. The strong social inequalities from which the north-eastern Ile-de-France suffers partly explain this worrying situation. According to Observatory of inequalities, 67% of the poorest families do not go on vacation, due to sufficient financial means.
Voices are being raised around the world – such as Devora Kestel, director of the mental health department at the World Health Organization – to urge political actors to launch a Marshall Plan for child mental health. The “Building Back Better” [« reconstruire mieux », plan d’investissement pour moderniser les Etats-Unis] is a necessity which is essential in the face of the psychological suffering of a generation of children observed every day. Investing in children however risks being constrained by economic difficulties and the impoverishment of States at the end of the crisis, imposing financial trade-offs where the suffering of children will not appear as a priority.
Educate parents
Some countries have already proposed multi-level actions to improve the well-being of children, limit the emergence of psychiatric disorders and prevent the risk of suicide in these populations at risk. Developing a prevention policy is a major priority.
In an emergency, it seems important to bring out all the strategies that would promote the child’s adaptation to stress, strengthen ties with peers and family, and increase parental skills to support their child in the crisis. For example, by making parents aware of the recognition of situations or symptoms associated with a high risk of suicide. Or by educating teachers to promote the emotional health and well-being of their students, as proposed in England in February. A special place was made to help the pupils to believe in their capacities, to develop their independence, to express their opinions or to reinforce their social competences.
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