Paternal Involvement in Psychiatric Care of Adolescents Managed for Depression or Suicide Attempt

Parental involvement, both quantitative and qualitative, is fundamental for a good psycho-emotional development of the child. The lack of parental involvement and especially paternal involvement significantly promotes the occurrence of behavioral disorders in children and later, in adolescence, the onset of depressive symptomatology. On the other hand, parental involvement has a protective role in the occurrence of behavioral disorders and decreases the risk of suicide attempts in adolescence. The authors of these cohort studies agree on the need for research on the identification of factors determining paternal involvement in order to organize specific prevention actions and targeted interventions to promote the involvement of fathers in psychiatric care of their adolescents.

The prevention of adolescent suicide attempts appears to be a real public health issue in Reunion Island with a suicide rate among under-35s twice as high as in Reunion than in metropolitan France.

This work is a continuation of the guidelines of good practice of the High Authority of Health (HAS) which insist on the importance of "supporting the parental function by health and public action".