The High Council for Public Health (HCSP) has issued new recommendations to deal with mental health problems aggravated by the health crisis.
- Currently, more than 500 mental disorders are listed.
- 1 in 3 people will experience a mental illness in their lifetime.
While the Government has just announced new restrictive measures to stem the fifth wave of Covid-19, the HCSP issues recommendations to preserve the mental health of the French, hard hit by the pandemic.
8 new recommendations
“Given the significant impact of the Covid-19 health crisis on mental health and the worsening of vulnerabilities, the HCSP’s recommendations to limit the impact of this crisis are on the one hand specific to populations (peri- native, children, students, elderly, health professionals, workplace, people living with a mental disorder, etc.) and on the other hand general”, write public health experts.
The HCSP recommends in particular:
– define a national mental health strategy aimed at organizing and coordinating this sector;
– design a contract on mental health between the State and local authorities, specifying the mission of the ARS;
– support the actors mobilized by the municipalities in order to restore the determinants degraded by the Covid 19 crisis;
– coordinate mental health actions in the territories in a global logic;
– systematize the use of studies for the measures envisaged on daily life, when they concern the whole of a population.
– set up convincing actions and reinforce “going towards” actions for people in vulnerable situations (either due to a psychiatric pathology, or due to socio-economic conditions);
– support and organize the deployment in all living environments of actions to promote mental health targeting factors of psychological balance (benevolent environments, social ties, development of physical activity);
– train the French in mental health with concrete tools, such as a communication campaign on the destigmatization of disorders, a single call number dedicated to mental health or an information website providing practical advice, tools self-assessment and self-medication.
Problems on the rise
According to the latest part of the CoviPrev survey (BVA/SPF) which has been monitoring the mental health of the French since March 23, 2020, depression, anxiety and sleep problems are all on the rise compared to last July. . 16% of French people thus show signs of a depressive state (+ 6 points compared to the level outside the epidemic and + 3 points compared to the month of July), 26% suffer from an anxious state (+ 6 points compared to the non-epidemic level and + 3 points compared to the month of July) and 70% declare having had sleep problems during the last 8 days (+ 20 points compared to the level outside the epidemic and + 11 points compared to the month of July ).
Moreover, fewer and fewer French people declare “have a positive perception of their life in general” (- 5 points compared to the level outside the epidemic). Finally, 10% of respondents had had suicidal thoughts during the past year (+5 points compared to the level outside the epidemic).
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