Rethinking partnerships between primary schools and child psychiatry public health services in times of COVID-19

Abstract

On a global scale, bringing together schools and public child psychiatry services is favored to promote the development of early interventions that could improve health trajectories, from prevention to treatment, for children exposed to psychological and psychiatric difficulties. In a public health perspective, contextualizing these practices is essential in order to ensure their sustainability and efficiency. This article sheds light on the stakes of these partnerships and their advantages in responding to the health, social, and economic mark that has been left behind by thecrisis accompanying the brutal onset of the Covid-19 epidemic. Improving the health care management for children with mental health problems or problems of a psychological nature implies taking into account their environment beyond thetherapeutic framework. Interventional research, currently underway, is taking place in several sites in France: primary schools, Medical-psychological centers (CMP), and Local Committees on Mental Health (CLSM). The goal is to provide an inventory and an analysis of the partnership and interventional structures that are most efficient, based on the needs and available resources at each site. This research envisages a diversification and a contextualization of the offer of care, with great concern for equity and therapeutic efficacy, starting from school. More than simple results, our aim is to make suggestions as to how to better accompany the end of confinement and the months to come. The development of partnerships in regions that are strongly marked by social and economic inequalities is a priority in terms of public health and the direction of local policies. These partnerships would contribute to a global strategy of evaluating the needs and the personalized accompaniment of children. Formalizing the intervention with the interface being the school sector will support the school staff in overcoming the health crisis that is affecting their institution. The steady rise of CLSMs will enhance local coordination and collaboration to help the most psychologically vulnerable children and aid their parents, given their situation, to support the development of their children. Restoring human and material resources to existing structures, notably in the sector of child psychiatry so that it can accomplish its public service mission seems to be a priority today. Establishing school-CMP-CLSM partnerships can contribute to providing local policy direction in the interest of elaborating individual and collective strategies that can ensure needs-adapted care that is accessible to as many children as possible.