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According to a new report by the Court of Auditors, the money spent by France in the field of child psychiatry would be “badly used” and would not allow the 1,600,000 children suffering from a mental disorder to be properly treated.
Is child psychiatry on the verge of implosion? Yes, according to a new report from the Court of Auditors, published on Tuesday. It calls for the reform of a “saturated” and “unsuited to the needs of young people” child psychiatry sector.
Child psychiatry: money “misused”
“About 1.6 million children and adolescents suffer from a mental disorder“, says the Court of Auditors.
In other words depression, anorexia or even schizophrenia.
The problem ? Half of these young people, i.e. “between 750,000 and 850,000” per year, benefit from care provided in medico-psychological centers (CMP)”overwhelmed by requests“.
And for good reason: the number of beds in hospitals has fallen in recent years, as has the number of specialist doctors (just over 2,000 today).
Result: the care offer is unsuitable for children, despite the 3 billion euros spent each year on child psychiatry.
Therefore, the Court of Auditors considers that this money “could be better used“.
“This is a cause that deserves adequate funding“, confides on this subject the President of the Court, Pierre Moscovici, during a press conference.
But for Dr. Bellahsen, a child psychiatrist, the problems encountered by the child psychiatry sector are not due to a lack of resources. It is “the fishing organization“. The saturation of the child psychiatric sector is also not new according to the expert.
“It is the fruit of 30 years of public policy. Diagnosis and assessment have been prioritized over patient care for years. Conclusion: child psychiatry is devastated. He’s sort of the abused child of medicine“, reveals the expert. “This report of the Court of Auditors therefore appears to be in the same line as the other twenty previous ones. He always offers the same solutions, which do not work.”
We must “invest massively in the meaning of care”
Faced with this “shipwreck” of the child psychiatric sector, Dr. Bellahsen recommends implementing certain changes.
“Rather than developing new structures, we must invest massively in the direction of care. In other words, by taking the time to care for patients, but also by giving meaning to this care for professionals, who today only do sorting“, advocates the doctor. “Clearly, we must stop talking about the form, but rather reflect on the substance of the problem and think of a global social project for the children of our country.“, concludes the expert.