A National Mental Health Council to better prevent mental disorders

Each year, nearly 10,500 people die by suicide in France. This is almost three times more than the number of road accident deaths. Behind this implacable observation, hides an often silent suffering. However, by identifying people at risk of suicide further in advance, it would be possible to avoid these tragedies.

Improved tools for suicide preventionis one of the projects to be tackled by the National Mental Health Council. Installed on Monday, October 10 by Marisol Touraine, the Minister of Health and Social Affairs, this body’s main mission is to “develop a global and cross-cutting approach to mental health issues”. The goal? Better prevent psychic troubles and psychiatric disorders and improve support and (earlier) care for people who are suffering.

In addition to suicide prevention, three other fields will be invested: the well-being of children and young people, the follow-up of people in very precarious situations; the development of tools to apply the territorial mental health projects included in the law to modernize our health system.

This body will work in collaboration with other players such as the National Suicide Observatory, the Steering Committee for Mental Disability, the Monitoring Committee for autism planor even the Steering Committee dedicated to psychiatry.

A seamless socio-health course

The idea is therefore to ensure follow-up care by intervening not only at the health level but by integrating the social dimension.

“This collaboration between actors from different backgrounds is essential for progress in mental health, said Marisol Touraine in a press release from the ministry. These are particularly complex cross-cutting issues. With the National Mental Health Council, we are pooling our skills , we are joining forces to improve responses to the needs of the population, at the heart of the territories, and to guarantee all patients seamless care, rehabilitation and support pathways”.

But why elevate mental health to the rank of public health issue? THE mental health report by Michel Laforcade (Director General of the Aquitaine Regional Health Agency) sums up well the growing importance of dealing with these issues relating to mental health. “One in five people will one day suffer from a mental illness. Ranked third among diseases after cancer and cardiovascular pathologies, mental disorders and mental illnesses play an important role in the lives of at least a quarter of the French population, taking into account their consequences on the immediate entourage of the patients”.

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