EShe talks at top speed, laughs nervously and apologizes, her left leg panics under the brown leatherette chair. The first time that Mila* crossed the threshold of the Maison des adolescents de Valenciennes, that she made her chime ring with a light timbre, she was 12 years old. She’s 14 now, she’s in ninth grade. She’s a slender little brunette with short haircut, headphones around her neck, jeans and sneakers. “I come here to seek help, support, because I have become violent,” she lets go in a voice as tenuous as her gaze is fleeting.
After the confinement of the spring of 2020, the current return of the young girl, with a journey enamelled with trauma, was very complicated. “My mother didn’t know what to do, she ended up calling here. Someone in college had told him about it. Since then, I have been squatting the MDA”, traces the teenager. To the professionals of the reception structure, she has said it several times: if such a place had not existed, she would probably not have “no longer there”.
“We are not intended to provide long-term care, observes Fanny Lamour, psychologist and site coordinator. The young people we receive are awaiting regular care in a medico-psychological centre. But over the past two years, the deadlines have lengthened so much that it is not always possible to do otherwise…”
Increase in demands. Located in the city center of the sub-prefecture of the North with 44,000 inhabitants, the house with red brick walls, opened in September 2013, stands on three floors. A secretary, a nurse, a social worker, a psychologist and two specialized educators live there, all submerged: demand has increased by more than 30% since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020. “Over the past two years, situations have become really more complex, observes Fanny Lamour. More and more young people need regular, and sometimes even multidisciplinary, therapeutic support…”
The team, young and feminine, can count on the regular support of a pediatrician and a psychiatrist. Insufficient to meet the needs: with 795 teenagers or parents met in 2022, the troops of the Valenciennes House feel a little overwhelmed. Lucille Labuszewski, at reception, sometimes has to create a dozen new files a day.
Support. The Post-its left by the teenagers are as many messages of encouragement but also testimonies of the anxiety-provoking situations experienced.
It is here that the cyberbullied whose naked photo circulates on WhatsApp, the school phobic with shattered self-esteem or the helpless lover in the face of repeated attacks by a porn fan boyfriend come to take refuge. Composed of two sites located in Maubeuge and Valenciennes, the Maison des adolescents du Hainaut is managed by a strong association of 110 establishments and 3,000 employees, Afeji Hauts-de-France, and financed by the regional health and the North Department.
“Teenage malaise has escalated sharply in recent years, with a significant increase in suicidal thoughts and acts, especially among girls – they made up 63% of our audience in 2022. What is happening with us is the exact reflection of national statistics”, explains Fanny Lamour. Inflation, global warming, war in Ukraine… “We see young people who no longer have faith in the future, who say to us: ‘What’s the point?’ she laments. We have entered a rather special period which greatly destabilizes many parents, so the children… We have never seen so many teenagers suffering from anxiety disorders or eating disorders, young people who came to report intra-family violence post-confinement, … »
The Maison des adolescents is accessible to middle and high school students and young adults, with or without an appointment. They are most often sent there by school staff – agreements have been signed between National Education and the 121 MDAs present on French territory. But also by general practitioners or emergency services. “We are trying to streamline our respective queues to be more efficient in the young person’s health journey. By dint of having to repeat their story to a large number of professionals, some end up getting fed up, the care is damaged. That’s what we try at all costs to avoid.”points out Gaëlle Cobbaert, the social worker.
Be happy. Along the banister of the stairs leading to the two interview rooms on the first floor float red and pink heart-shaped balloons, remnants of the “love day” organized in mid-February for Valentine’s Day. Post-its pasted on a wall multiply recommendations and messages of support. “I would like to regain my self-confidence and be happy”,“I know it’s hard but it’ll be okay, don’t be ashamed, I love you”,“Do not accept everything for love”,“If I want to kiss someone of the same sex as me, I do it”.
Not far from there, Safa’s parents* are waiting, installed, silent, on a red and purple sofa. Their 14-year-old daughter, with brown hair in a long ponytail and loose black clothes, meets Éloïse Noël, one of the specialized educators, for the first time. The first telephone contact with the MDA dates back to a month – in the current state of forces, impossible to shorten this waiting period, at the risk of seeing young people evaporate in nature.
Eloise Noel and Safa* sat face to face in a small room simply decorated with a large poster of the film The forest’s call and whose door is closed. On the coffee table that separates them is a large jar of markers. “Would you rather talk about yourself or let me ask you questions?” » begins the 25-year-old educator, silver hoops and black boots.
Refuge. The center is accessible to teenagers with or without an appointment.
Talk. The teenager gradually relaxes, recounts in cautious words her escape to Paris to join her boyfriend, the difficulties with her father and one of her three older brothers, her fear of being excluded, abandoned. She and her mother have just left the family home to live together in a hostel. In a soft voice, Éloïse Noël asks questions, asks for details while taking notes in a Bic pen in a large notebook open on her crossed legs.“If you had to place your morale on a scale of zero to ten? » probe the professional. ” Three or four “, sighs the girl. “If you had a magic wand, a wish, what would it be?” »” Go back. During the confinement, when everything was fine and my grandfather was still alive”, glisse Safa* with emotion. For almost an hour, Éloïse Noël sheds light on ideas and advice. “Do you feel good talking? »« Oui, replies the teenager, I feel as if I had blown…”
In the next room, Gaëlle Cobbaert ends her meeting with Elsa*coming for the second time. “I haven’t been very well for a long time, whispers the young school dropout girl, prey to dark thoughts. But leaving here, I feel better than before. »
Do his best. The weekend is near. The whole House team, tired, gathers in the meeting room on the ground floor. The program for the coming weeks is mentioned: health prevention workshops organized with partners such as Family Planning in the North, discussion groups for therapeutic purposes, others to raise awareness around the question of sleep. The team disseminates this information on social networks.
“The needs are so huge, we can’t meet everything… Even parent-teacher associations are now contacting us”, point Fanny Lamour. “It’s very frustrating not being able to help everyone, abounds the nurse, Anaïs Lecoq. Let’s say we’re doing our best with what we have…”
If they hold up even in heavy weather, they say, it’s because the atmosphere is good, the solidarity between them plays out. “We are just in time in unsuitable, poorly insulated premises; what we need, above all, is more human resources”, dreams aloud the coordinator of the structure, which multiplies the projects while fearing the general shortness of breath. They catch their breath when they come into contact with those who drop by the reception just to say hello, give good news or introduce a baby. And by re-reading all the little words that run along the walls of the House. “My heart is a little broken, is it written on one of them. But sometimes, thanks to MDA, it can fix itself. » §
* The first names have been changed.
What to do, where to go?
“We don’t ask children enough about their emotional states,” regrets Professor Richard Delorme, head of the child psychiatry department at the Robert Debré hospital (AP-HP). Admittedly, the teenage crisis exists, but parents must trust each other. “ If a father or a mother perceives that his child has suicidal thoughts, in general it is because the latter has already been thinking about it for a very long time. He saw it as a secret. Do not hesitate to talk about it directly, to question your child, is an important element of prevention. » In addition to a consultation with the pediatrician or general practitioner, parents can turn to CMPPs and validated advice sites:
clepsy.fr Practical information to support families, posted online by the Robert-Debré Hospital team ;
fdcmpp.fr The list of all the medico-psycho-pedagogical centers in France;
pharmacologie.sfpeada.fr A detailed review of available drugs, written by the French Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Associated Disciplines.
Vincent Boisot/Riva Press FOR “LE POINT” (x3)