Paris (AFP)
"Family violence: your pharmacist is there": the 22,000 pharmacies in the territory have received the procedure to welcome and help victims of violence, increasing since the introduction of confinement, we learned on Friday from pharmacists' unions .
"Today (Friday), all pharmacists have been informed of the procedure," said Gilles Bonnefond, president of the Union of pharmacist unions, saying that "the reception will be able to go up gradually charging next week. "
This alert system in pharmacies, allowing victims to find help to contact the emergency services, was announced last Thursday by the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner.
Two days later, a first woman went to a Nancy pharmacy to report the violence of her companion, who was then arrested.
Now, on the site of the national order of pharmacists, which developed the device with the government, dispensary managers can download practical sheets to receive victims, flyers and posters with emergency numbers, noted the AFP.
The hypothesis of using a "code" to contact his pharmacist, mentioned by Mr. Castaner, does not appear in the documents.
The pharmacist has "two functions", detailed Philippe Besset, president of the Federation of Pharmaceutical Unions of France: "first isolate the victim to collect his testimony and be able to immediately call for help if necessary, then, secondly, advise him of emergency numbers ", 3919 for victims of domestic violence and 119 for children.
The call to its structures can be made directly in pharmacies, "local places open during confinement, on the front line in terms of health", he added.
Confinement, decided almost three weeks ago to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, is a risky period that can exacerbate violence within the family, suffered each year by more than 250,000 women and 52,000 children.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, reports of incidents thus increased by 32% in the gendarmerie area and by 36% in the area of the Paris police headquarters during the first week.
This alert system, put in place for the duration of the epidemic, should "be able to be prolonged and become permanent," said Mr. Bonnefond.
© 2020 AFP