Great National Cause: mental health, also for students

Four priority targets

The same day, the Council of Ministers defined the priorities of the Great National Cause according to four targets:

• destigmatisation, “to change the view of the French on psychological and mental disorders”;
• development of prevention and early spotting “through awareness-raising and training and all aspects of society”;
• improvement of access to care everywhere in France, “through the scaling of care processes, the development of new occupations in relation with mental health, keeping an eye on care to the most fragile and with more complex disorders”;
• a follow-up for people affected “in all aspects of their everyday life” such as professional training, employment, accommodation, access to leisure activities, and more. 

A roadmap for every ministry

With these four priorities defined, the French government reminded the importance for each sector to rely on actions already in place in terms of prevention and follow-up of mental health. Every ministry is thus invited to develop its roadmap in its own scope to define a general strategy.

It’s already done for the ministry of higher education, which listed in September all the actions deployed in favour of students’ mental health, which are actions completely driven or supported by the ministry.

Concrete action for higher education

Taking advantage of the National Suicide Prevention Day, the Ministry of Higher Education wanted to emphasise that it is “making a concrete commitment to the mental health of students”.

Four major mechansims are listed among the many that exist:

• the Cnaé platform, launched in December 2023, is a free and confidential listening, support, information and reporting platform;
• Santé Psy Etudiants, created in 2021 at the height of the pandemic to respond to situations of psychological distress, enables all students who so wish to seek free help from a psychologist who is a partner in the scheme;
• the Student Health Services, which will be completely overhauled in 2023, are designed to “respond better to changing health needs”. All students now have access to the Student Health Services, whether or not they are enrolled at university, and whether they come from public or private higher education;
• Nightline, a mental health scheme by and for students, launched by an association supported by the Ministry, which offers students free helplines and a chat room.

Other initiatives are also supported by the Ministry, such as the training of 5,000 “mental health first-aiders” and the deployment of University Psychological Support Offices (BAPU), accessible in most university towns, where consultations are 100% covered by social security and mutual insurance companies.