Émilie was no longer surprised to surprise Félix (first name has been changed), 7 years old, running away from his room despite being banned from going out. Suffering from behavioral disorders, the child “set the tempo of the evenings” at the emergency child welfare center (ASE) which welcomed him. With him, the specialized educator, aged 30, had become accustomed to the beatings, the spitting and, sometimes, the chases in the cold streets of Brest (Finistère). But nothing had shocked her more than Felix’s stay in a psychiatric hospital. “We called the firefighters during one of his seizuresremembers Émilie. He spent a few days resting in the hospital. When he left, no follow-up instructions were given to us. No treatment review, no summary of the care followed… The medical team apologized, they didn’t have time.”
The educator never saw Félix’s behavior improve following this intervention. Alternating between physical violence and psychological distress, the “crises” of the child have never been studied by a psychiatrist. And her suffering continues to mark Émilie, more than six years after her departure from the structure in 2019. One thought torments her: if the medical staff can do nothing about Félix’s – undiagnosed – behavioral disorders, who will take care of them? The question is all the more legitimate since, within child welfare, nearly one child in two presents psychological disorders, according to a report from the High Authority for Health (HAS) published in spring 2025.
Undetected mental disorders
Even if the institution considers “with caution” This estimate, all scientific reports converge on this evidence: children with a child protection measure are over-represented among those with mental disorders. They present “four times more depressive and anxiety disorders, suicidal states or scarification practices” than the general population, explains Guillaume Bronsard, child psychiatrist and head of department at Brest University Hospital. So many children require psychiatric care (in order to obtain drug treatment, for example) and sometimes the support of a psychologist.
“It is essential to address the violence and neglect they have suffered. I remind you that abused children have twenty years less life expectancy than the general population.”
Emotional deficiencies and psychological or physical violence suffered by children before their placement are not enough to explain this prevalence. The lack of human resources within the ASE or the working conditions of its employees (supported in this article that we published in September 2025) are all causes of this generalized unhappiness.
Grégory Dubois, director of the National Child Protection Observatory (ONPE), is one of the first to recognize this: “Added to these factors is a difficulty. The interruptions in their stay, the constant change of living establishment and care of these young people complicate their care. However, it is essential to address the violence and neglect they have suffered. I remind you that abused children have twenty years less life expectancy than the general population.”
“I couldn’t speak for two years”
This over-representation of mental disorders is all the more significant as it is difficult to discern by supervisory staff, warns Guillaume Bronsard. “Disruptive and violent behavior legitimately worries educators who take children to the hospital for safetyindicates the child psychiatrist. But these expressive behaviors do not necessarily require psychiatric care. On the contrary, anxiety and depressive disorders, which are more internalized, are under-psychiatrized and less detected.”
The children of ASE are the first to pay the price. Madiba Ousmane Guirassy, co-founder of the Vigilance Committee for Placed Children and former unaccompanied minor, remembers the two years during which he “unable to speak”. “I no longer had contact with my mother who remained in the countryhe says. It weighed heavily on me and I couldn’t get it out. It was only after two years, when I saw a psychologist, that the latter informed my household who organized a telephone exchange with my mother.
So who is responsible for these young people left to their psychological suffering, without the psychiatric and psychological support necessary to maintain their mental health? Trainer and former specialized educator, Angélique Revest is keen to defend social workers who, when it comes to detecting psychological disorders, have a “observation role without being able to make a medical diagnosis”. She ends up calling into question, like all the sources with which we spoke, the difficulties of access to child psychiatry care.
Months of waiting for an appointment
In a parliamentary information report devoted to the mental health of minors and made public in July 2025, deputies Nathalie Colin-Oesterlé (Horizons) and Anne Stambach-Terrenoir (La France insoumise) describe, from the first lines of the introduction, a “saturation of the health system which struggles to offer quality support for children and their families”. An entire chapter is devoted to the child protection public. Described as “the most vulnerable”young people from the ASE and the judicial protection of youth (PJJ) have medical monitoring “defaulters”.
The medical-psychological centers (CMP), which represent the vast majority of psychiatric care provision for placed children, are particularly blamed. These local public care structures, where different health professionals are available, are completely saturated. According to a report from the Court of Auditors from March 2023, the time taken for treatment deemed non-urgent varies between two to eight months across French territory. Professionals that we were able to interview speak of up to a year and a half of waiting before being received in certain structures in Seine-Saint-Denis. Or an eternity in the case of depressive or anxiety disorders, which can worsen over time.
“We end up seeing them in the emergency room on Friday evening”
These consultation times vary depending on the departments and the resources provided to health establishments. They also appear to be unequal depending on the patients. “Children whose parents are active may push for an appointmentexplains child psychiatrist Guillaume Bronsard. They can emphasize the urgency of the situation, unlike young people in foster care who do not have available parents or whose educators do not have the time to do this. These young people come last, even though, in my opinion, they should be a priority.”
“It is more socially and economically costly to resolve the problems of an adult who has been carrying around trauma and addictions for years than a child.”
However, it is essential to resolve “as early as possible” mental disorders and trauma present in children, “especially if they are placed”notes Gisèle Apter, child psychiatrist at the Le Havre Hospital Group and professor at the University of Rouen-Normandy. Lacking this context, young people in the ASE whose depressive disorders are not detected or treated in time end up developing suicidal states. “We end up seeing them in the emergency room at the hospital on Friday evening”summarizes Guillaume Bronsard.
When hospitalization takes place as a last resort, when the suffering is most apparent, child psychiatry “only used to put out fires”illustrates trainer Angélique Revest. And the health system is not serving its mission of continuous care, professionals in the sector lament.
Departments without child psychiatrists
Faced with this observation, the child protection and child psychiatry sectors are trying to better coordinate their efforts. The High Authority for Health has drawn up several recommendations in this direction. But investments and diversification of care are necessary. Child psychiatrist Gisèle Apter hopes in particular for more therapeutic practices, such as “speech therapy, games or animal mediation”in order to discern children’s disorders.
Her opinion is joined by Jennifer Le Pioufle, activist within the Vigilance Committee for Placed Children, for whom the systematization of psychiatric care is an error: “We assume that placed children have a problem. When I was placed, I was taken to see a psychologist to whom I had nothing to say. I would have preferred to do art therapy or practice sophrology, for example.” Jennifer Le Pioufle also calls for fairer continuity of care for children with mental disorders. “It is more socially and economically costly to resolve the problems of an adult who has been carrying around trauma and addictions for years than a child”she compares.
However, the conclusions are rarely followed by changes in the sector of child psychiatry and child welfare. Florence Dabin, president (center right) of the Maine-et-Loire Departmental Council and the public interest group France Protected Childhood (created in January 2023), recognizes the dysfunctions of the ASE, despite “increasing investments” territories which are responsible for it. It also calls into question the absence “state plan, despite the planned drop in the number of healthcare workers. Thirty departments are today without child psychiatrists!”
In recent months, one of the rare rays of hope in the small world of child protection is called Pegase. This is a medical monitoring program for babies and young children in care, which is acclaimed by the profession and by validation organizations, such as the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). Experimented for several years, it is supposed to be introduced in January 2026.
But according to initial information from the specialist media ASH, which we are able to confirm, the public authorities have discreetly divided the budget of the healthcare system. At the same time, the government announced, at the end of November 2025, the renewal of mental health as a “major national cause” for the year 2026. Real political commitment… or new trick following a year where nothing changed for child psychiatry?
