In three years, the care activity has changed “at all” within the health service of the University of Picardie-Jules-Verne. The wave of psychological distress affecting students, which arrived in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, never really subsided. And with her “the installation of cases of a gravity that we did not know before”, worries the director, Delphine Guérin, doctor, who quotes “Very severe depressions, generalized anxiety syndromes and more frequent entries into psychoses” among the young people she now receives. But also higher suicidal risks, with “many referrals to emergencies” during the year.
“Everything has changed. We manage polytraumatized young people, who are growing up in a period of chained attacks, the Covid, the war in Europe, and who are facing the climate crisis”, she enumerates. The management of these profiles requires more time for the university health services (SSU) which, everywhere in France, are overwhelmed. Many are warning, at the end of the academic year, of their inability to absorb all the requests, which are constantly coming in. At Jules-Verne, if the service has gone to two full-time psychologists, “the waiting time for an appointment is two months: it’s very long when you’re feeling bad”, Delphine Guérin is alarmed.
“Delay effects”
Two years ago, the onset of the health crisis highlighted the mental health problems of young people. Today, their support is still lacking in towns and universities, notes the report published on Tuesday June 14 by the Nightline association, which has set up a listening service for young people. “In 2020, there were first nine white months before the State decided to act. Efforts were then made, with the announcement of the psy check and the hiring of 80 psychologists in the universities, observes its president, Florian Tirana. But this is still very insufficient given the scale of the distress. »
The study deplores in particular the lack of staff in the establishments to provide psychological support to the students. In the United States there is one full-time psychologist for every 1,300 students, one for every 2,300 in Canada and one for every 2,600 in Ireland. In France, it is one for 15,000 students. The rate is a marked improvement compared to the previous study by Nightline, published in November 2020, which reported 28,000 full-time students. But it is still more than ten times lower than the international recommendations of the Iacs association, which accredits university mental health services.
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