En emerging from the health crisis, associations and practitioners observed a significant deterioration in mental health in France. End of 202217% of French people showed signs of a depressive state according to the French public health agency – an increase of 7 points compared to a period outside the epidemic – and 10% declared having had suicidal thoughts during the year. , an increase of 5.5 points.
An equally worrying phenomenon, since the end of containment and travel restrictions, the rate of hospitalizations for attempted suicide has increased steadily. This situation particularly affects young girls and women aged 10 to 24according to figures from the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics: following the second confinement, there was a hospitalization rate for attempted suicide among girls aged 10 to 14 1.6 times the average rate observed for this group before the Covid-19 period.
The entry of Covid-19 into our lives, its immediate consequences and the measures taken at the political level have had an undeniable impact on the mental health of the population: sometimes conducive to introspection and positive awareness, the period could also have been a difficult and trying crossing.
Growing discomfort
We, mental health actors, have therefore been strongly solicited. In the voluntary sector, the number of calls to helplines increased from the start of the health crisis and has not declined since. Among practitioners, consultations for suicidal ideation and requests for care have greatly increased. At the same time, the search for information on mental health, mental disorders and care has also increased exponentially.
All the observations we have witnessed in this area, put together, describe a situation of growing unease, which seems to have persisted for several years. Facing this suffering on a daily basis could induce exhaustion, a feeling of powerlessness or even inexorability among mental health actors who end up “to hyperadapt”.
The progressive deterioration of mental health is worrying enough for us to combine our skills in a united collective to alleviate the psychological suffering of the population. According to the World Health Organization, mental health is a “a state of well-being that enables everyone to realize their potential, to cope with the normal difficulties of life, to work successfully and productively, and to be able to make a contribution to the community”.
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