The French Hospital Federation (FHF) publishes its 2e surveys mental health and psychiatry and reveals alarming figures. Between the explosion in suicide attempts among teenage girls (+118% in 5 years) and saturation of public services, the cry of alarm is unequivocal: faced with an exploding demand for care, the public hospital is calling for an immediate national emergency plan. Communiqué.
One year after warning about the difficulties of access to care and the psychiatric needs of young people(1)figures from the FHF Ipsos survey and FHF Data analyzes(2) show a crisis that has been growing since 2019, with a particularly marked impact on young people and women. The significant increase in hospitalizations for suicide attempts constitutes the most worrying indicator of this deterioration.
While, for the second year in a row, mental health has been designated a Great National Cause at the request of the FHF, the warning signs are increasing. They call for concrete and rapid responses to this major public health issue.
For young people and women, an increasingly alarming situation
More than one in two French people currently exhibits signs of anxiety — mild, moderate or severe — and almost one in four is suspected of having generalized anxiety disorder according to the GAD-7 clinical test(3).
Young adults are by far the most affected: 42% of 18-24 year olds and 38% of 25-34 year olds have a score suggestive of generalized anxiety disorder..
This situation is directly reflected in hospital care, with particularly worrying development among young women. Since 2019, the number of hospital psychiatric care (including hospitalizations and outpatient care) for women has jumped in the youngest age groups:
- + 23 % for 10-14 year olds;
- + 47 % for 15-19 year olds;
- + 49 % for 20-24 year olds.
The increase in hospitalizations for suicide attempts is the most worrying indicator. In five years, they have increased by 16.6% at the national level.
This progression is particularly marked among women: + 25.4% over the periodcompared to + 2.5% for men. Women today represent 66% of hospitalizations linked to a suicide attempt.
Among the adolescents and young womenthe figures for hospitalizations linked to a suicide attempt reach highs particularly high levels :
- + 76 % for 20-24 year olds in five years;
- + 118 % for 10-14 year olds over the same period.
These data require immediate national mobilization. Behind each figure, there are children, adolescents and young people in great distress whom hospital teams welcome every day, both on an outpatient basis and in full hospitalization, despite insufficient resources.
A public health crisis amplified by difficulties in accessing care
With the monitoring of 80% of the active queue of adults and 95% of that of children and adolescents in psychiatry, the public hospital is on the front line facing this significant increase in needs every day, every night and in all territories.
The demand for mental health care continues to grow, generating increasing strain on the entire health system. Between 2016 and 2024, the active queue of public psychiatric establishments has increased by 200,000 additional patients.
Despite a slight improvement compared to 2025, difficulties in accessing psychiatric care remain massive.
Nearly one in two French people with mental health problems reports encountering obstacles in their care.
THE waiting times that are too long to see a psychiatrist concern 45% of themet 38 % even faced an outright impossibility of obtaining an appointment.
These difficulties hit young people even harder: 79% of 18-24 year olds faced with mental health problems have encountered at least one difficulty accessing care — compared to 62% on average for the entire population. Among them, 64% experienced excessive wait times to access a psychiatrist, and 52% were unable to get an appointment.
Added to these obstacles fear of diagnosis. 42% of people affected by mental health problems say they have given up consulting for fear of what a professional might tell them. This proportion reaches 75% among 18-24 year oldsrevealing the extent of the road that remains to be covered in terms of destigmatization.
The FHF has formulated concrete proposals to respond to the emergency and build the future of psychiatry: https://www.calameo.com/fhf/read/003795702b291ae33134a?page=1
For Arnaud Robinet, president of the FHF:
“By turning our attention away from mental health, we are creating an unprecedented public health crisis, particularly to the detriment of young people and women.”
« The figures we are publishing today confirm what hospital workers experience on a daily basis: the demand for psychiatric care continues to grow, and it hits women and young people with particular intensity. The public hospital is coping, but it is urgent that the Great National Cause for mental health, requested and obtained in 2026 by the FHF, translates into concrete, sustainable and funded commitments.
An emergency plan for mental health and psychiatry must be implemented without delay.
We need a interministerial delegation for mental health and psychiatryto bring all the actors involved around the table, beyond just the health field. It must have a dedicated multi-year plan, in particular in order to support medical-psychological centerspivotal in psychiatric care, and fight against the vocations crisis in psychiatryparticularly in child psychiatry, which has lost a third of its practitioners between 2012 and 2022.
He isalso essential to strengthen responses dedicated to young people, by developing units and multidisciplinary teams for 16-25 year olds, by strengthening and multiplying the teenagers’ homesbut also by consolidating links between school, social services and hospital teams, in order to identify disorders earlier and support young people as soon as they appear.
The situation is serious. Let us not let our youth, especially young girls, sink into silent suffering ».
2nd survey on mental health and psychiatry. Since 2019, an alarming deterioration in the mental health of young people and women, FHF, 15 avril 2026.
(1) Press release of March 26, 2025 (online)
(2) Source: Information Systems Medicalization Program (PMSI)
(3) The GAD-7 (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) is a 7-item questionnaire used to assess the presence and severity of generalized anxiety symptoms. Each item is rated from 0 to 3 according to the frequency of symptoms, for a total score between 0 and 21. Thresholds of 5, 10 and 15 correspond respectively to levels of mild, moderate and severe anxiety. A score ≥10 is considered suggestive of generalized anxiety disorder. The wording of the items was slightly adapted to take into account the age of the respondents.
