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On this World Mental Health Day, the Grande Cause Mental Health 2025 collective – made up of artists, researchers and even users – wanted to highlight the difficulties and taboos that persist around mental health.
In France, 1 in 5 people are affected by a mental disorder each year, or 13 million people. For them as for their loved ones, the disease takes its toll on daily life and is accompanied by stigmatization, diagnostic uncertainty and treatment difficulties. This is why, on this World Mental Health Day, more than 3,000 organizations from all walks of life (artists, businesses, users, experts and researchers, etc.) wanted to shake things up.
A largely underestimated subject
Despite the importance of psychological disorders which affect 40% of French people – and more than half of 18-24 year olds – mental health remains a largely underestimated subject.
Half of them think so:that only 10% of the population is affected by a psychiatric illness, half the reality“, reveals the Collective Mental Health 2025 press release.
Watered-down figures, which (unfortunately) reflect a certain reality: mental health remains a subject that we do not talk about. Nearly half of French people affected by these disorders do not speak about it to anyone or do not find an attentive ear.
However, the French are not resolved. They want mental disorders to be made “visible”.
“For nearly 80% of French people, mental health is not sufficiently addressed in the media or in the workplace. Even with family or friends, 70% of French people consider the subject insufficiently discussed“, the press release further reveals.
This development would allow French people affected by psychological disorders to put an end to the preconceived ideas that persist.
In fact, 36% of French people still believe “that people with mental disorders cannot have a family life“and for one French person in 5,”mental disorders are not really illnesses“.
Public authorities are not up to the challenges
On this subject, the report reveals that the expectations of the French “is strong and systemic“and that the actors to be mobilized are”multiple“: health professionals, researchers and relatives as a priority (more than 80%), but also the government (69%), businesses (63%) and the media (59%).
For 90% of French people, “carry out information campaigns and change the way people look at health” is a priority, as is “promote access to health professionals, develop screening and early detection and support scientific research”.
And then?
Faced with this reality, 3,000 organizations from all walks of life – psychiatry, businesses, users, places of reception, support and care, experts and researchers – have united under the banner of the “Grande Cause Mental Health 2025” Collective.
This unique initiative mobilizes all stakeholders to respond to this societal and public health emergency.
The collective thus reiterates its desire to “represent all the mental health issues encountered in the field: those of people affected by mental disorders, psychiatry, support and the social and medico-social sector.“
Concretely, the award of the “Great National Cause” label, awarded by Michel Barnier to Mental Health for the year 2025, will make it possible to launch a vast awareness and prevention campaign, to bring together public and private actors and to encourage a profound change in the perception and care of mental health in France.
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