An opening plenary session on children’s mental health and well-being

The first day will open with a plenary session addressing a timely topic in the post-COVID context: “Measuring and better understanding children’s mental health and well-being: challenges and solutions.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our lives (school closures, social isolation, etc.), leading to a decline in mental health, particularly among the youngest and most vulnerable. However, it has raised awareness of the true public health challenge that well-being and mental health represent, and the importance of promoting well-being and preventing the onset of disorders, particularly among children. Indeed, the early years of life are critical for psycho-emotional development, learning, and the ability to adapt to adult life. This plenary session will present the lessons learned and contributions from systems for monitoring children’s mental health and will also provide an opportunity to focus on a key determinant: housing. It will also facilitate a discussion with professionals from diverse backgrounds, working for and with children, on the challenges faced and the solutions implemented and those yet to come, in the wake of the pandemic.

A second international plenary session on complex systems in public health

The second day will begin with the plenary session: “From Individual Determinants to Complex Systems: Better Understanding Public Health Issues”

Dietary choices, lack of sleep, physical inactivity, and being overweight are often identified as individual determinants influencing health. The session will illustrate how these factors are not rooted solely in personal choices but are part of a complex system of political, economic, social, and environmental influences that are themselves interdependent. It is therefore to situate these determinants within contexts and a network of influences—on which action can be taken—that numerous studies have sought to formalize these various causal relationships through new approaches. These approaches enable us to understand public health issues such as obesity, sleep deprivation, and addiction from the perspective of how our living environments are organized, thereby allowing us to develop collective interventions and evaluate them in terms of their impact on individual health.

To illustrate this research and its contribution to prevention and health promotion, this plenary session will revisit the context in which these approaches emerged, present various examples of actions based on these complex models, and demonstrate how these represent opportunities for interventions that improve individual health-related behaviors. Finally, the adoption of these approaches by public actors for policy implementation will be outlined through the presentation of national public initiatives.

And 11 thematic and hands-on sessions

Over the course of these two days, sessions will be held on various topics reflecting the agency’s strategic priorities and its six major public health challenges. French and international speakers, along with representatives from Santé publique France, will explore current issues and share their experiences and expertise in public health policy.

The schedule for the two days:

Tuesday, June 20

• Reducing the burden of alcohol: challenges for public policy internationally

• COVID-19 and the health crisis: what are the consequences for the health of the French population?

• Communicating to Promote Mental Health

• The Interaction Between Biodiversity and Health in the Context of Global Change: The “One Health” Approach Serving Populations

• How can public policies draw on health literacy knowledge to help reduce social health inequalities?

• Disadvantaged and Vulnerable Populations: Outreach and Reaching-Back Strategies—How to Develop and Implement Them

Wednesday, June 21

• How and Why Count Deaths in France Today?

• Risks associated with exposure to chemicals: from national surveillance to local actions within the European framework

• Prevention programs: how and why measure their performance using quantitative methods?

• National strategy to strengthen the psychosocial skills (PSS) of children and youth: deploying expertise for high-quality PSS interventions

• Environmental policies and public health in local communities: preserving the health of present and future generations

An organizing committee

Renewed annually and composed of a pair of representatives from Santé publique France’s scientific departments, the organizing committee is responsible for proposing topics, developing the program for a session, workshop, seminar, or plenary session, and contacting and coordinating with internal and external speakers and moderators leading up to the event. It is chaired by Laetitia Huiart, Scientific Director of Santé publique France, and coordinated by the Communications Department.

About the Rencontres

Organized since 2016, this major highlight for the agency aims to share experiences and best practices, and to put into perspective the key challenges and major lessons learned regarding public policies that promote an environment conducive to the health of the population, particularly the most vulnerable. This annual event, open to all, brings together the scientific community, decision-makers, civil society, and stakeholders from the national public health network: health monitoring and surveillance systems, prevention initiatives, and health interventions.
French, European, and international experts come to present their latest work, discuss topics of interest and current issues, and demonstrate how expertise is applied to public action in support of population health.