Journal of Psychiatry

Anxious school refusal, evolving therapies in an integrated youth-friendly service in Paris

25^th World Summit on Psychology, Psychiatry & Psychotherapy

October 19-20, 2017 | San Francisco, USA

Laelia Benoit

University of Paris Sud, France

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

School refusal has become a priority of policies in the youth mental health field. In France, this owes much to the development over the last 10 years a medical interest in the educational system efficiency and in children socialization processes through social networks. This attention has been supported by the opening of free-access integrated youth mental health services. If psychiatrists argue that school refusal might merely be a sign of anxiety or might as well be understood as children�?? adaptive difficulties, families seeking help because their child appears afraid of school are commonplace in psychiatry. While parents consider their children avoidance of school as a social withdrawal that jeopardizes their future, adolescents argue that they have access to friends and to the world through internet. For parents�?? groups, new coping skills should be learned to reduce the stress and increase the well-being in the classroom. This oral communication summarizes the psychotherapeutic work and psychology research carried at the Maison de Solenn, the first integrated mental health service designed for adolescents in France. How do adolescents understand their school avoidance? How do their parents understand it? For teachers, what is considered as a sign of mental distress when a pupil misses school? Since 2004, our team aims at reducing the gap between adolescents and the school thanks to diverse drop-in workshops, an array of psychotherapies (individual, family, cross-cultural, cognitive, psychoanalytic psychodrama), and a tight network of interdisciplinary professionals working with Parisian schools, including the most innovative ones (self-managed highschool with a youth advisory group). During this presentation, the author will go over these evolving therapies and settings.

Biography :

Laelia Benoit is a PhD candidate in Public Health and Sociology. She works as Researcher at INSERM and as youth Psychiatrist at the department of adolescent psychiatry of Prof. Marie Rose Moro. She completed two master degrees: cross-cultural psychology (University of Paris 13) and Sociology (EHESS, Paris). Her main interests are services users’ experience and pathways to care, in order to support innovative youth-friendly therapies and settings.