Psychiatrist and professor emeritus of forensic medicine, Michel Debout has long been involved in the prevention of suicides and psychosocial risks. He is a member of the National Suicide Observatory.
In November 2020, after an investigation for the Jean Jaurès Foundation showing an increase in suicidal ideation after the first confinement, you warned of a possible wave of suicides to come. How do you assess the situation today?
Regarding suicidal thoughts, which are a good indicator of the negative mental state of a population, the current level of 9% in the monitoring of Public Health France is very worrying. This potentially represents millions of people and behind these figures, there are actions.
Overall, a lot of delay has been taken on the subject of mental suffering: it was not until the fall of 2020 that it was publicly mentioned by the Minister of Health. [Olivier Véran] and the director general of health [Jérôme Salomon], while the damage of such a crisis was foreseeable. Historically, all major crises, economic or social, resulted in an increase in suicides in the years that followed.
Suicide attempts among children and youth appear to be on the rise. Is their distress sufficiently taken into account?
The first confinement was a suspended period, where people stood together, but the momentum of solidarity wore off and at the start of the 2020 school year, France was divided between those who could resume their activities and those who could not. couldn’t. To better prevent the consequences on mental health, it would have been necessary to reach out to vulnerable groups: young people, but also isolated elderly people, the unemployed, catering, sports and event professionals.
For students, the answer cannot be limited to free psychological counseling, without understanding that they need places to meet. Recently, it was learned that five medical interns had died by suicide since January and I have heard no reaction from the government. It makes me all the more angry that at the same time, an administrative and judicial investigation was launched because a hundred interns had a party at the Toulouse University Hospital. Such an evening met a need for individuals on the verge of professional and emotional exhaustion.
This exhaustion threatens all caregivers, but also other professionals such as police officers and unemployed people… The uncertainty is very weak on the psychological level.
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