Containment -

Ludovic MARIN / AFP

  • For several months, specialists have been warning about the harmful effects of confinement on the mental health of the French.

  • A meeting on the subject was held this Monday afternoon in Matignon, around the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, and the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.

  • By choosing last week a much lighter confinement than that of March 2020, has the executive chosen to protect the mental health of the French?

This is the other aspect of the epidemic that worries the authorities: the mental health of the French.

A question taken very seriously by the government, which was to be addressed this Monday afternoon in Matignon, during a meeting attended by the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, and the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, to prepare a action plan.

Last week, before the government's announcement of new measures in 16 departments, several specialists expressed their concern about the consequences of a new confinement on the mental health of the French.

Finally, the executive chose an in-between: confine without locking up, a solution that could avoid a collective burnout.

The exterior as a remedy

Faced with the threat of a "third wave which would be that of mental health", as Olivier Véran had warned in November, the government therefore seems to have decided to let go of the ballast, by allowing the French concerned to "walk around, get some fresh air or play sports ”within a radius of 10 kilometers, with no time limit, between 6 am and 7 pm.

“Being locked up is impoverishing.

Physical activities, or even simple outings, are essential to relieve stress, relax, and reconnect with nature.

This is what we recommend in mental health in stressed patients, ”notes Wissan El Hage, psychiatrist at the CHRU de Tours and co-director of the“ Neurofunctional Psychiatry ”team at INSERM.

“In France, we always tend to put the brain on one side and the rest of the body and the muscles on the other.

It's a big mistake, they walk together, they communicate, "cardiologist François Carré told AFP, warning about a sedentary lifestyle, a" time bomb "with" people who have lost the habit of moving " .

For Viviane Kovess-Masféty, psychiatrist and epidemiologist, it is also a very clear choice of the government which we are witnessing: “It will have a beneficial impact on the morale of the French.

Moreover, it is made for that, it is explicit.

If we take an epidemiological point of view, this is clearly not the most appropriate response.

The executive gave priority to the human aspect ”.

"Acceptability" of the measures

The figures for the first confinement speak for themselves: in March 2020, nearly 20% of French people said they were in depression, according to a survey carried out by Public Health France.

“The first confinement was very hard for a large number of French people.

It was a shock, we did not know what to expect, it gave monstrous representations around this pandemic ”, decrypts Wissan El Hage.

“Everyone has experienced firm containment.

Today, it is almost a relief, even if there are still deprivations of liberty.

The government has tried to do something that is as less scary as possible, ”analyzes Viviane Kovess-Masféty for her part.

And if the pill seems to go better, it is also because the government has chosen a “tailor-made” containment, only in the territories facing an epidemic outbreak.

A territorialization which made these measures more understandable for public opinion, and therefore easier psychologically: “Depending on the city, we do not play in the same court.

In places where there are few cases, people would have found it difficult to understand that we are confined, ”said Viviane Kovess-Masféty.

"It is more acceptable to set up a confinement which is not a confinement and to try in parallel to explain the objective well: the reduction of the contacts", explained last Sunday the epidemiologist Pascal Crépey to

20 Minutes

, arguing that the government had taken into account the "acceptability" of the measures.

A third psychological wave?

From one French to another, the consequences of the epidemic on mental health are very different, depending on the sociological, geographical or demographic categories: "There is something on which we must be vigilant when talking about" French".

Between the student, the teenager or the old person, people are in quite different psychological situations.

There are populations that are much more at risk than others, the consequences are not the same for everyone, ”warns Viviane Kovess-Masféty.

For Wissan El Hage, the psychological consequences of the epidemic could last several months, even several years: “There are various risky situations, such as precariousness, isolation or addiction.

If these risks persist over time, it is feared that the psychological state of some people - anxiety, depression, suicide - will deteriorate for a longer time.

"

Are we therefore going to witness a "third wave, which would be that of mental health"?

No, according to Viviane Kovess-Masféty.

“We confuse everything, we confuse psychological distress, that is to say discomfort, with mental illness.

Psychological distress is commonplace, it already affected a quarter of French people before the epidemic, it is temporary, ”analyzes the researcher, who believes that the anxiety of some will disappear with the return to“ normal ”life.

“Those who have seen their mental health deteriorate are those who were ill before the epidemic.

People who are well are quite resistant, including psychological problems, ”she concludes.

The executive, which has made the subject one of its priorities, was to study several avenues on Monday, such as "the management of stress in teleworking, the isolation of the most precarious or the creation of a free aid system. for psychological support ”, report our colleagues from Le

Parisien

.

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  • epidemic

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Health

  • Moral

  • Burn out

  • Psychology

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