The Regional Directorate (DiRe) oversees Santé publique France’s regional activities. The agency carries out its activities in the regions through its Regional Units, which are attached to the Regional Health Agencies (ARS); these units provide expertise, experience, and know-how in the areas of health monitoring, surveillance, and alerts, health observation, and program evaluation to support decision-making on regional health policies.
With 12 in mainland France and 4 in the overseas territories (the Antilles, French Guiana, Réunion, and Mayotte), the 16 Units are Santé publique France’s sole representatives in the regions. As such, they carry out all of the agency’s missions.

The coordination of regional activities gives the DiRe a strong cross-cutting component that is reflected in the agency’s programming process. The DiRe oversees two programs: the “integrated regional public health program” and the “overseas populations” program, which address specific regional needs. Regional action across all of Santé publique France’s areas of intervention (infectious diseases, environment-related pathologies, occupational health, chronic diseases and accidents of daily life, prevention/health promotion) results in the DiRe contributing to most of the agency’s other programs.

To carry out its missions, the DiRe relies on a network of multidisciplinary partners, including healthcare professionals (reporting physicians, emergency medicine networks, regional emergency observatories, intensive care networks, networks of private practitioners (SOS Médecins, hospitals, laboratories…), public health professionals (ORS, CépiDc…), institutional partners (ARS, Dreal, Direccte, INSEE…), experts in various fields of intervention and learned societies (…), research teams and universities, etc.

The regional directorate consists of a management team, a support unit, and 16 regional units comprising regional teams, bringing together a total of approximately 141 people.