The Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said he wanted “make mental health of our youth a great cause for government action”. During his general policy statement on Tuesday, January 30, to the National Assembly, the former Minister of National Education and Youth recognized that “ill-being, depressionssuicidal thoughts have increased significantly among our young people.”
I want to make the mental health of our youth a major cause of government action.
This is why we will increase the amount of the Psy Check and allow young people to have access to psychologists without a doctor’s prescription.
— Gabriel Attal (@GabrielAttal) January 30, 2024
“My psychological support”: what are the changes announced by Gabriel Attal?
One of the levers of action envisaged by the government is an overhaul of the “My psychological support” system, which offers reimbursement for consultations with a psychologist. The latter saw the light of day in February 2022, but has struggled to gain unanimous support since its launch.
To remedy this, the Prime Minister indicated that the price of the reimbursed consultation will be increased “to limit as much as possible the remaining costs for young patients and their families”, without however specifying an amount. In addition, he wishes to allow “youth having access to psychologists without a doctor’s prescription”.
As a reminder, “My Psy support” is aimed at the entire population from 3 years old. The latter allows “to anyone (from 3 years old) anxious, depressed or in psychological sufferingto benefit from psychological support sessions with coverage by Health Insurance”, out of a limit of eight sessions over a calendar year. To benefit from it, the patient must first be referred by a doctor to a psychologist approved by Health Insurance and a partner of the “My psych support” system.
How to explain the “lack of results” from “My psychological support”?
According to the figures revealed by UFC-Que Choisir in April 2023, one year after the launch of “My Psy Support” (at the time called “My Psy Journey”), “only some 100,000 patients benefited from this monitoring, for 438,000 sessions in total, or on average four per patient”, against the maximum eight sessions provided for by the system. The cause, in particular, was an insufficient presence of approved psychologists, which amounted to just over 2,300. The system was boycotted by 93% of the 70,000 psychologists.
Asked by France Inter, Florent Simon, general secretary of the psychologists’ union, estimated in April 2023 that “all the modalities must be reviewed from top to bottom. The prescription, eligibility criteria, number of sessions, duration, pricing”, the latter previously amounting to 30 euros for a 30-minute session.
Sources :
- General policy declaration by Gabriel Attal: the complete LCP – 01/30/2024 – LCP – National Assembly
- The fiasco of the “My Psy” device – UFC Que Choisir (04/9/2023)
- “Everything needs to be reviewed from top to bottom”: one year later, the “My psychological journey” system is a flop – France Inter 04/5/2023
- Evaluation of the “MonParcoursPsy” system – OJ Senate of 04/27/2023
