Emmanuel Macron, April 2, 2021 in a screening and monitoring center for autistic people near Grenoble. – KONRAD K./SIPA
Emmanuel Macron visited this Friday a screening and monitoring center for autistic children near Grenoble in Isère, to mark World Autism Awareness Day and take stock of the fourth five-year plan launched in 2018.
“We absolutely must catch up” in the field of psychiatry and autism, launched this Friday Emmanuel Macron. Wearing a blue ribbon on the lapel of his jacket, he was speaking on the occasion of World Autism Day, during a visit to the psychiatric hospital of Saint-Egrève which houses a pioneering screening center and model.
A “huge building site”
“On mental health, it is a huge project on which France has historically fallen behind. The (Covid-19) epidemic has slowed down its implementation but it has also made it even more necessary and leads us to make more radical choices, ”insisted the Head of State, accompanied by the Secretary of State. ‘State for disabled people Sophie Cluzel and the Interministerial Delegate for Autism Claire Compagnon.
The Isère platform for detection, diagnosis and early intervention is one of the first to be established in the region. It has already welcomed several hundred children who are followed up on site three half-days a week for a period which fell on March 1 from 18 months to 2 years.
Make a diagnosis
The creation of these free monitoring structures is one of the flagship measures of the “autism strategy” launched in April 2018 for five years by the government. Despite the health crisis, 63 have already emerged, with the objective of installing one per department by 2022, recalled the Head of State. They have already made it possible to identify 6,800 children and 3,800 families who have benefited from an early intervention package, allowing them to start a follow-up with a psychologist, an occupational therapist or a psychomotor therapist.
Several parents told the Head of State of their relief at having found this versatile structure which poses a diagnosis often after several years of incomprehension and fruitless consultations with specialists. “My son Raphaël, who is six, is living again! He has friends, he’s starting to learn to read and write, ”exclaimed Céline, who was worried that the free follow-up would stop after two years. “It will be necessary to extend it”, wished the president. “We saw dozens of doctors, for thousands of euros, before finally making the diagnosis here”, said with emotion Pierre, father of a 6-year-old girl.
700,000 people with autism in France
All testify that, on the other hand, at the Center hospitalier de Grenoble, the period of consultation in child psychiatry is two years. Endowed with nearly 400 million euros, the fourth autism plan (2018-2022) includes four objectives: to act earlier with children, to diversify the methods of schooling, to support the scientific approach and to strengthen support for adults.
France has nearly 700,000 people with autism and it is estimated that nearly one in a hundred children is born with an autism spectrum disorder. Under-diagnosis, schooling problems, lack of reception solutions, discrimination, integration difficulties: its support remains insufficient, regularly alert associations.
“Adults are the big forgotten” of this strategy, regrets Unapei. “This year in particular, because of the health crisis, we want to pay tribute to those who are once again forgotten, on the waiting list, in the Creton amendment (adults kept exceptionally in institutions for children in lack of places to accommodate them elsewhere), exiles in Belgium, or worse, without any solution ”, also points out the association Sésame autisme. Gathered in front of another entrance to the psychiatric hospital, a few dozen caregivers demonstrated in white coats to denounce the closure of 78 beds since 2017 in this establishment which now has around 300 beds.