In response to these indicators, the Agency has implemented prevention initiatives to promote the early identification and treatment of mental distress. A mental health awareness campaign, #JenParleA, was launched in partnership with Fil Santé Jeunes in June 2021 and expanded in 2022. As with all its prevention initiatives, Santé publique France evaluated the relaunch of this campaign and is now publishing the results, which confirm its positive reception and effectiveness in encouraging adolescents to use Fil Santé Jeunes’ assistance and support services.

Raising Awareness of Support Services: A Campaign That Met Its Goals Among Teens

Building on the initial positive feedback from the first information campaign targeting 11- to 17-year-olds, #JenParleA, and given the continued deterioration of adolescents’ mental health, an initiative enriched with new digital content was launched from January to June 2022. A poster campaign was also launched in March 2022, with the support of the ministries of health, national education, sports, and agriculture.

According to the results of the evaluation of this second phase, the campaign was very well received by adolescents. Among those who recognized the campaign:

• 93% found it useful

• 95% felt it encouraged them to talk to someone

• 82% felt it provided new information, which is significantly higher than the standard for Santé publique France campaigns typically observed among this target group (53%, across all topics and media).

The campaign also helped increase usage of the Fil Santé Jeunes platform, with a rise in:

• 54% in daily visits to the Fil Santé Jeunes website

• 48% in daily browsing hours on the Fil Santé Jeunes website

• 29% in daily chat messages handled by Fil Santé Jeunes regarding mental health issues.

Awareness of the campaign improved significantly, with 53% of adolescents recognizing at least one of the campaign’s media (compared to 39% in 2021). The main media recognized were posters, particularly in schools.

The Mental Health of Young People Continues to Deteriorate

The mental health of the population, particularly among young people, is a priority for Santé publique France, which conducts ongoing monitoring of mental health across all life stages to inform public policy decisions and implement targeted interventions.

The Agency publishes a monthly mental health epidemiological update based on mental health-related care visits to emergency departments within the OSCOUR® network and SOS Médecins associations. The indicators presented in the latest bulletin showed that mental health among adolescents remains poor. Since the beginning of 2023, emergency room visits for suicidal ideation appeared to continue a slight upward trend, with levels higher than those observed in 2020 and 2021. Furthermore, emergency room visits for suicide attempts and mood disorders remained at a high level in 2023. These visits no longer appeared to be increasing compared to 2020 and 2021, though they had not yet returned to the levels observed before the COVID-19 crisis.

On the topic of mental health, Santé publique France recently published:

• Regional Public Health Bulletins on mental health and COVID-19—suicidal behavior

• the results of the 2021 Santé publique France Health Barometer on the prevalence of depressive episodes in mainland France among people aged 18–85