Bordeaux (AFP)

"Asking someone if he is thinking of ending his life can prevent him from taking action," a nurse told a dozen students on the Bordeaux campus.

As saving as a "cardiac massage for a person in cardio-respiratory arrest".

Through role-playing games, drawings or videos, these young people in training "First aid in mental health" will become "links in the chain" of prevention of mental disorders in students.

Aimed at "students who have missions with their peers" (in charge of tutorials, tutors ...), this training finds "all its meaning" with the health crisis, which leaves many young people "isolated, precarious, vulnerable" , said the nurse.

In the theses room of the Faculty of Law, all testify to the difficulties of their peers.

Raphaël, 22, a pharmacy tutor, explains that during an exam, "a student did not answer the question but expressed a real SOS, writing that he was ready to take action. With the others guardians, we were very touched, we were not equipped for that. In the future, we want to be able to react ".

Anxiety, depression or problems related to drugs and alcohol ... Florence Touchard and a psychologist colleague explain that in France one in four people has experienced a mental disorder and that one person commits suicide every hour.

They teach students to "not judge", to "create a kind of alliance" with their interlocutor, to distinguish the signs from the symptoms and to ask the right questions to, at the very least, "make something germinate".

- "Neither cops, nor professionals" -

In the case of a suicidal crisis, asking THE question directly "will lower the level of tension", they tell students who are almost astonished.

"Say: + Are you telling me that you want to die? + Rather than: + Do you think about hurting yourself?, Too vague".

"I would have been afraid to trigger something by using those words," rebounds Kieran, 28, a doctoral student in law and in charge of TD.

"I remember fumbling around answering e-mails from students, I avoided asking directly what he was trying to tell me ..."

"The student will never tell you: I am mentally ill, I am anxious ... He will say: I do not understand what is happening to me, I can not think", explains to AFP Esther Odjo , who has already benefited from the training.

"It opened my eyes" to mental disorders, says this doctoral student in law, in charge of "digital and social support".

"Before, I told myself that the students were doing a little too much. But I understood that it was not whims."

"Now, I have learned to approach, to dialogue. With gestures, words. Not to be aggressive, not to be afraid, not to judge. + I know that you are suffering, I understand. + To make it comfortable. student, offer a glass of water, talk about everyday life first, gradually come to the big topic. "

"We want to reassure them, we are neither cops nor professionals," blows the young thirty-something, who puts this knowledge into practice "three or four times a week, sometimes more", at the university and even outside.

In Bordeaux, there should be 300 "rescuers" like Esther by July.

But for Sarra Leklou, in training, all staff working alongside students should be made aware of mental disorders.

"We would help a lot of people like that", estimates this doctoral student in law and in charge of TD of 26 years who found herself "helpless" in front of "very heavy e-mails" from her students, some of whom have "abandoned everything ".

© 2021 AFP